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FEOM WISCONSIN 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN, 



AS REPORTED FOR THE "WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL,' 

BY JAMES ROSS, 

Secretary of the Excursion Party, 



BY HON". GEORGE GARY, 

FOR THE "OSHKOSH JOURNAL," AND THE " OSHKOSH NORTHWESTERN. 



MADISON, WIS. : 

ArWOOD ft RtmLEE, BOOK AND JOB PRINTEES, JOURNAI, BLOCK. 
1869. 






rs 



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PREFACE. 



At the request of the Wisconsin Excursion Party to the 
Pacific, the following account of the trip, as given in a series 
of letters, is presented in this form. The object of the excur- 
sionists in making this request, arose from a desire to get 
some suitable memento of an excursion fraught with pleasant 
recollections and incidents which form an eventful era in 
their lives and mark the successful consummation of an 
enterprise creditable to the people of the United States and 
to the skill and confidence of the engineers and capitalists 
who, in 1869, had the proud satisfaction of presenting to 
the world one of the greatest works of the age, in a railroad 
passing through deserts and mountains to complete the 
lono- link needed to unite the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 
with the iron rail that does so much for the convenience 
and happiness of man and the origination and prosperity of 
communities. 

By the blessings of the railroad and telegraph, the excur- 
sionists enjoyed a wonderful trip, the recollection of which 
will not only illume their memories but may also brighten 
the minds of their descendants when years hence they read 
the following account of it and learn how their ancestors for 
a happy month enjoyed quick traveling to perfection while 
crossing the American Continent. 

JAMES EOSS, 
Secretary of the Excursion Party. 

Madison, Wis., August, 28th, 1869. 



COERESPONDENCE OF JAMES ROSS, 

FOR THE "WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL." 



■ Arrival at Chicago — Laying in Stores and Making Prepara- 
tions—Organizing for the Trip— Stoppages to he made at 
Omaha and Laramie — The Start. 

Chicago, July 19, 1869. 
j This morning the Wisconsin Excursionists, bound for Salt 
I Lake and San Francisco, arrived at the Sherman House in 
excellent condition. The following is the full and complete 

{ list, as now made up : 

I 

I Hon. B. F. HOPKINS, M. C. of 2d district of L. S. HANKS, Cashier of State Bank. 
j Wisconsin. W. J. ELLSWORTH, 

I Hon. THOMAS S.ALLEN.Secretary of State, JAMES ROSS, Correspondent of "Wis- 
I Hon. WILLIAM E. SMITH, State Treasurer, consin State JournaL" All of Madison. 

Hon. CHARLES R. GILL, Attorney General, Hon. PHILETUS SAWYER, M. C. of 5tli 
I Hon. J. M. RUSK, BanK Comp Toller, district of Wisconsin, 

Col. THOMAS REYNOLDS, Pension Agent, Hon. GEORGE GARY and 
I Hon. GEORGE B. SMITH, Hon. SAMUEL M. HAY, President of the 

I PHILO DUNNING. Ist National Bank ; all of Oshkoeh. 

! SAMUEL KLAUBER, Doctor R. B, TREAT, Janesville. 

t J. E. MOSELEY, W. H. WYMAN, Milwaukee. 

Doctor J. B. BO WEN, J. B. SMITH, Fox Lake. 

EUSHA BURDICK, Hon. N. S. GREENE. Milford. 

N. B. VAN SLYKE, President Ist National Hon. H. CORDIER, State Prison Com- 

Bank of Madison, mlssioner, and 

Major P. B. PARSONS, Hon. G. W. BLY, Waupun. 

D. K. TENNEY, Esq., Hon. WM. M. GRISWOLD, Columhus. 

Messrs. Hopkins, Tenney and Parsons and the writer reached 
here Saturday morning, and made all the necessary arrange- 
ments for the trip. 

Messrs. Tenney and Parsons, as caterers of the excursion, 
performed their arduous duty most effectively during Satur- 



Q FROM WISCONSIN TO . , 

day, and tbe heavy invoice of choicely selected stores, put up 
by Stanton & Co., will undoubtedly, daring the trip, prove 
the judiciousness of the caterers and the excellence of this 
wholesale house. 

They secured one of Pullman's best sleeping cars, amply 
large enough to comfortably accommodate the whole party, 
so that the scenes of beauty and sublimity that they justly 
expect to pass through may be placidly gazed on, surrounded 
by the most complete conveniencies of railroad traveling. 

Mr. Tibbitts, an old Madisonian, is here, having just returned 
from San Francisco by rail, and he has, if possible, increased 
our interest in the trip by his vivid description of the sights to 
be seen. lie has breathed and been exhilarated by the dry, 
pure air of the Sierra Nevadas, and has admired the cleanli- 
■ness and beauty of the Mormon city, where, last Sunday week, 
he heard Brigbam Young preach to a congregation of 6,000 in 
the Temple. 

You cannot adequately imagine the excitement in this city 
regarding these excursions, as parties are daily starting to and 
returning from the land of gold by this potent railroad route. 

The party organized in the Sherman House parlor this morn- 
ing, by electing Hon. Philetus Sawyer, President ; James Eoss, 
Secretary: D. K. Tenney, Esq., Treasurer; and Messrs. Yau 
Slyke, Parsons and Tenney, the Executive Committee. The 
members of this committee, from the first conception of the 
trip, have very ably and carefully designed and carried out 
every arrangement. 

The party will stay one day at Omaha and one day at Lara- 
mie, at which last place they expect to hunt antelope and fish 
for trout and then sit down to a feast fit for vigorous Badgers 
at an altitude of over 8,000 feet. Think of eating such diet in 
the bracing air of such a height, where the pure water of the 
region is said to have three times the elevating effect of that of 
the common stimulants. 

When I try it, I will fairly inform you of its effect upon me, 
and that too, without any prejudice against any other stimu- 
lants that may possibly be around. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETUBN. 7 

Barker, the well known barber of Madison, accompanies the 
party, and has already proved his usefulness and ability as a 
watchful steward. 

I must not omit to mention that Cameron, of the firm of 
Culver, Page & Hoyne, the extensive stationery dealers of this 
city, did one of the pleasant acts that it is usual for him to do, 
by waiting on your correspondent this morning, and as a com- 
pliment to the Journal, presented him with a complete report- 
orial outfit 

But I must now close, as the hour of 10 A. M. is nearly upon 
me, and we leave the depot to start on the grand trip of the age 
in fifteen minntes after that time. 

Please excuse hurried writing, and expect to hear from me 
at Omaha. 



Trip of the Wisconsin Party from Oliicago to Omaha — Pullman 
Cars — Three Rivers Grossed — The Scenery en Route — Forward 
Crops — Damages by Rain — Council Bluffs — Omaha — Courte- 
sies from Old Wisconsinners. 

Omaha, Neb,, July 20, 1869. 

The Wisconsin Pacific Eailroad Excursion party left Chi- 
cago a little after 10 o'clock on Monday morning, and here we 
are, between 8 and 9 o'clock of Tuesday morning, at Omaha, 
the lively and handsomely located border city of Nebraska, 
and nearly 500 miles west of Chicago. This marvel of trav- 
eling progress has been most comfortably made in the Pull- 
mari car, " Florence," attached to a Pacific route train that 
goes through at an express rate, without stopping at any sta- 
tions, except two for refreshments, and one or two for water 
and wood. We dined at Dixon, III, took supper at Cedar 
Eapids, Iowa, and breakfast at Omaha, Neb., after having 
crossed the Eock, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The 



8 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

scenery was mostly fully cultivated prairie land, diversified 
here and there with graceful stretches of trees and shrubbery. 
Cornfields were the prevailing feature of the route, and some 
of them were rank in their luxuriance, and grand in their 
extent. When nearing Cedar Eapids, we encountered a very 
heavy rai'n storm, and, after supper, the fields of oat-bowed 
heads, through which we passed, emphatically attested its 
damaging violence. The further West we got, the forward- 
ness of the climate was more and more impressed upon ns, 
and w^ithin thirty miles of Omaha we saw field after field of 
tasseled corn. We also noticed the results of the heavy rain 
storms which have lately fallen upon this section, in the 
flooded places and washed sand-banks, the effect of which last 
was being removed from the track here and there for a mile or 
two before reaching Council Bluffs. When we got here, we 
had to cross the Missouri river by ferry, and those not too 
hungry, admired the handsome horses that pulled the omni- 
buses through as deep and black a mud as we have ever seen, 
that impeded our progress, before and after crossing the ferry. 
The town of Council Bluffs looked white and picturesque in 
the distance, but as arrangements had been made for our 
stay at the Metropolitan at Omaha, the wish of some of the 
party to visit Council Bluffs as we passed through, had to be 
disregarded, although Moseley staid over to visit with young 
McConnell, for many years in his bookstore at Madison, and 
well known and appreciated in the place. In the afternoon 
most of the party also enjoyed a delightful visit to this flour- 
ishing place, of which I shall subsequently write. 

The ride from Chicago to this place in a Pullman sleeping 
car is completely divested of fatigue or tiresomeness, especially 
when in the company of a genial and social party. During 
the day, some read the journeyings of early explorers in 'the 
interesting region we were entering on ; some gazed on the 
fertile and growing fields of grain that continuously filled the 
eye and swelled the highest estimate of the unparalleled re- 
sources of the country, and others with pleasant converse or 
cards added fresh strength to the vigorous wings of flying 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN'. 9 

time that bore us all so speedily over the short spans of the 
fleeting hours. When the usual time for retiring came, all 
sought the roomy and comfortable beds that the cars afforded, 
and were soon in the arms of Morpheus, or else inspiringly 
thinking of the marvel of running at the rate of thirty miles 
an hour through the State of Iowa on a straight air line rail- 
road. In the morning some of the early risers renewed the 
jokes and pleasantries of the previous evening, and one of the 
steadiest of the party awoke all the rest to mirth and the 
pleasures of a bright morning by mistaking the curtain of his 
bed for his shirt, and doing his best to dispose of it as though 
it were the nether part of that essential of dress. 

As we drove to the Metropolitan hotel, with keen appetites, 
we could not but inhale with pleasure the fresh dry air, or fail 
to admire the blue sky and bright sun that showed the divid- 
ing Missouri river and the cities of Council Bluffs and Omaha 
at their best. 

After a good breakfast, I had stomach and leisure to notice 
that the front of the hotel was draperied with the national 
flag, and that a State flag of Wisconsin, brought at the con- 
siderate suggestion of one of the party, waved in the breeze 
and showed the proud motto of " Forward " to the many who 
admiringly gazed on it. 

During the morning Judge Wakeley, formerly of Madison, 
Senator Chase, formerly of Racine, ex-Attorney General 
Eastabrook, of Wisconsin, Mr. Delaney, formerly of Portage, 
and other whole-souled Badgers, visited and extended, courte- 
sies to the party. There also came Mr. W. B. Strong, 
Superintendent of the Northwestern road at Council Bluffs, 
Montgomery, a well known lawyer, formerly of La Crosse, 
Col. Daley, who got a noble military record as a private of 
the Second, and Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin 
regiment, and Mr. Williams, a lawyer of Council Bluflfs, but 
formerly a student in Madison, all now residents of Council 
Bluffs ; and they invited the party to visit tne city in the 
afternoon. The invitation was accepted, and after dinner all 
but one or two of the party went over and enjoyed a delight- 



10 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

ful time. I rode behind a Blackhawk horse of Montgomery's, 
driven by Col. Daley, and saw all the natural beauties and 
artistic improvements of Council Bluffs, with every convenient 
accessory. Erom one high bluff I saw a large and picturesque 
section of the town full of wooden buildings, from another, 
on the height of which there was a handsomely located ceme- 
tery, I saw substantial brick blocks and houses, and the yards 
that supplied the red and yellow bricks, and in drives through 
Herfurth's and other gracefully wooded glens, I got a most 
favorable idea of the natural and acquired advantages of the 
place. All the party were very handsomely treated at Coun- 
cil Bluffs by their spirited entertainers, and before returning 
to Omaha they were regaled with an elegant supper, after 
which the acknowledgments of the party were ventilated by 
Hon. Geo. B. Smith and the writer, and hearty cheers were 
given for Gen. Dodge, Montgomery, Daley, Willia.ns, James 
and the other spirited residents of Council Bluffs. 

I finish this on Wednesday mornmg, and must now hur- 
riedly close, as we leave at 815, in an elegant car, on 6ur long 
trip West. In my next I will give an additional item or two 
about Council Bluffs and Omaha. 



The Ride from Omaha to Laramie — More about Council Bluffs 
and Omaha — Indian Captives — Hiding Across a Western 
Prairie — Lunch in a Pullman Gar — Talk with a Mormon — 
Glorious Sunset on the Plains — Appreciated Newspapers — The 
Platte. 

Laramie, W. T., July 22, 1869. 

The excursion party reached here between eight and nine 
o'clock this morning — all well — after enjoying a pleasant and 
marvelous railroad ride of 573 miles since leaving Omaha at 
8:30 yesterday morning. 

But before referring to this, I must mention that before leav- 
ing Omaha, some of the party inspected the large and complete 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 11 

•' 

machine sliop of the Union Pacific Railroad there, and others 
went to the barracks and sa^' a lot of fifty squaws and pap- 
pooses that had been captured and brought in. One squaw 
was the widow of Big Bull, who, with fifty of his warriors, bit 
the dust in a fight with the United States troops only a week 
or two since, and not far from a railroad point which the ex- 
cursionists will shortly pass. It is said that these savages, 
when fighting between themselves, as they frequently do, put 
to death the captured squaws and pappooses, and if this be so, 
there can be no reasonable regrdt that the march of civiliza- 
tion is breaking up these happy hunting and bloody fighting 
grounds. 

After leaving Council Bluffs, on Tuesday evening, where 
Greneral Dodge, the energetic railroad manager, had been in- 
defatigable, with the other previously mentioned gentlemen, 
in entertaining the party ; those composing it enjoyed a 
pleasant evening in Omaha, which by night showed much stir 
and activity. One of the billiard rooms, which was long and 
elegantly furnished, contained fourteen billiard tables, and 
when we looked in every one was occupied, while the sur- 
rounding seats were filled with spectators. Before leaving, in 
the morning, I was pleased to meet Mr. Redfield, formerly of 
the "Waupaca Spirit^ but now of Omaha, where for some years 
past he has been conducting a flourishing printing ofl&ce. I 
also met Mr. Bryant, a former resident of Madison, and who 
efficiently served in the colhmissary department of the 12th 
Wisconsin regiment. He now serves in the commissary office 
at Omaha, and he had real gratification in meeting his friends 
with the excursionists, and adding to their pleasure. 

"We left Omaha in the elegant Pullman car " Rawlings," 
and were soon out in the prairie country, that, for hundreds of 
miles, marks the line of this wonderfully straight and level 
road. For the first hundred or two miles the prairie was fre- 
quently diversifiled with luxuriant corn and potatoe fields, 
showing the richness of the soil, but every additional hun- 
dred miles made these gratifying evidences of cultivation and 
fertility less and less frequent, until nearly two hundred miles 



12 FKOM WISCONSIN TO 

before reaching Laramie they entirely disappeared. But al- 
though corn and grain were not seen, the prairie grass and 
flowers looked refreshing, the effect of which was increased by 
the brown grass villages of the prairie dogs and, although 
tlie short grass looked dry, even for this unusually wet season, 
for this section, there were cows and horses seen grazing on it 
here and there, and now on the plains about this place large 
herds can be seen, that get plenty of water 'from the Laramie 
river and also from a spring, the clear water of which is con- 
ducted through the streets of the town with very cooling- 
effect. 

During the morning's travel, the party was served with lem- 
onade made by Barker, and so excellently was it flavored that 
the partakers were of the unanimous opijiion that Barker, to 
be invincible, should add the refreshment business to his bar- 
ber's art. As we could not get dinner until 2:80, the excel- 
lent quality of Messrs, Van Slyke, Parsons and Tenney, as 
caterers, was triumphantly shown in the serving of a lunch, 
by which the party luxuriously regaled on ham, tongue, pot- 
ted meats and pickles, &c. We mention this so that others 
making the same trip, may know how to enjoy the comforts 
of a home while traveling thirty miles an hour through the 
Rocky Mountain plains. We got an excellent dinner at 
Grand Island, an eating house station, and here had our first 
taste of the luscious buffalo and antelope meat, of which there 
was plenty and to spare. 

During the run, there visited us in our car, Mr. Johnson, a 
member of Congress from California ; Mr. Harris, one of the 
Government inspectors, who was looking after the condition of 
the road, and a smart Mormon, named Joseph Bull, connected, 
with the daily Deseret News, published at Salt Lake city. He has 
a couple of wives and he vigorously upheld his religious doc- 
trine in a controversy with some of the party. But he was 
verv courteous and expressed an earnest desire for us to visit 
the famed city, that he was evidently very proud of. He told 
me that he was born in England and came from Leicester, 
Mormonism, from his looks, seemed to agree with him, as he 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN, IB 

was a strong and fresTa looking man, which probably may be 
attributed to his abstinence from spirituous liquor and to- 
bacco. 

A GRAND SIGHT. 

During the afternoon we all enjoyed a grand sight, which 
culminated wnen the red face of the setting sun glowed before 
us. The swelling bluffs forming the outline of the prairie, 
had beea gradually getting fainter and fainter, until at last 
nothing was before or around us but a vast ocean of prairie. 
A cool breeze swept over it and the glowing sky got softer 
looking as the sun set. Nothing relieved the eye from the 
vastness but the white bones of the buffalo, that showed here 
and there from the grass, or the pert little prairie dogs, cun- 
ningly standing sentry over their holes as the train passed. 
No noise broke the impressive silence that reigned around, but 
the thundering of the train as it rolled along at over thirty 
miles an hour. Looking out of the window towards the loco- 
motive, the machine was seen in all its majesty, towering 
above the surrounding plain, as it apparently irresistibly flew 
towards the heart of the setting sun, that formed the red 
boundary of the western horizon. 

At the lone block houses and stations, at which last, soldiers 
were stationed, some of the party threw newspapers out of the 
car windows, and the sight of the lone settlers and soldiers 
rushing to get them, was as -grateful to the donors as the sight 
of the newspapers was to the receivers. At Plum Creek, 
where five railroad men were killed by the Indians about a 
year since, two companies of cavalry and infantry were sta- 
tioned, and their tents made a picturesque appearance, with 
the men on duty, their guns at rest ; the Pawnee scouts hold- 
ing their ponies, and an officer's wife smiling on the party as 
they threw her newspapers. ' At such a place the arrival of a 
train is the great event of the day, and a woman with plenty of 
friends, and perhaps relatives in the distant States, must espe- 
cially look on it with a brightening face. 



14 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

A SCENE OF BEAUTY. 

We had struck the Platte river early in the day, and had at 
intervals ran in full view of it. At sundown we came along- 
side of it again and the train would run along its bank nearly 
all night. The moon rose and shed its brightness around and 
when we came to a long bridge, guarded by a soldier pacing 
near a mouldering fire, a witching view of the broad Platte 
was seen as its current gleamed along like molten silver, and 
shimmered among the islands and trees and banks in the dis- 
tance. A cool, fresh, dry breeze ran along the river's surface 
and as a spectator inhaled it he felt to the full the inspiration 
of the scene of beauty, so that he could even imagine the 
scenes of years ago when Indian warriors on just such nights 
are supposed by certain writers to have wooed their dusky 
loves ; although seeing the Indians as they appear now, wad- 
dling along with bare legs and only a blanket over them, re- 
quires considerable imaginative power to poetically associate 
them with such a scene, and I think most men to successfully 
do it would either have to be deeply struck by h^ve or liquor. 

But I must now close this, as the train from the West, four 
hours behind time, is coming, and I can better continue the 
account* of the charming trip here, where we slay until to- 
morrow morning, in another letter. 



The Ride to Laramie Continued — Antelope and Buffalo — Prairie 
Dogs — The Aj^proach to the Rocky Mountains, with Snow 
Capped Summits — Riding on the Cow- Catcher — TJnfurling 
Wisconsin! s Flag on the Heights — Pure Air — Laramie and its 
Institutions — A Suggestive Picture — Minor Matters. 

Laramie, Friday, July 23, 1869. 

On Wednesday evening we took supper at North Platte, 
and it was such a plentiful and well served one, that on rising 
from the table, three cheers were proposed for the proprietor. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 15 

and they were given witli a will. So far we have found the 
eating stations fully as good as those on the traveled routes in 
Wisconsin. 

During the night the train stopped at a station where four 
companies of United States troops were camped, and some of 
the party who had not retired, got out and had a five minutes 
talk with the soldiers. Most of the party were in their large 
and comfortable berths afforded by the Pullman sleeping 
palace car, and each had one selected at the beginning of the 
trip by lot. They had gone to bed early, so as to be up betimes 
in the morning, to see the Kocky Mountain scenery which 
would then be in view. I found it difficult to withdraw my 
gaze from the plains, steeped as they were in the moonlight, 
with the Platte river showing bright, and the distant bluffs 
looking dark blue. When I did manage to retire, the impres- 
sion was strong that I had enjoyed a sight worth living to see. 
Early in the morning, a cry was heard that antelope and buf- 
falo could be seen, and some of the party saw them. Here the 
road seemed to be guarded by Prairie dogs, as the little fellows 
for several miles were almost constantly popping up. The sun 
was two hours high when the first glimpse ofthe Eocky Moun- 
tains was seen, and their peaks looked blue and gray in the 
distance. This gray was the perpetual snow that far off is the 
color of sand, but on a nearer approach is white. The smt- 
rounding plains now began to get bluffy near at hand and 
boulders of stone to mark the vicinity of the mountains. 
Clearer and clearer the snow-capped mountains loomed up 
with their brown cliffs and misty gorges, where the snow was 
seen as through a veil. Big rocks now also lined the track, 
being scattered around as far as the eye could reach in varying 
shapes. Stunted pine trees also grew from clumps of rock 
and added to the romantic effect of the Black Hills. We 
were now between Cheyenne and Sherman, and rapidly rising 
to the highest point on the road between the Atlantic and 
Pacific, over 8,000 feet above the sea level. Oh ! the wonder 
and grandeur of this rocky scenery. What imaginings are 
prompted as you gaze on it. There you can imagine the rock 



16 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

in which Alladin was enclosed, shaded with stunted pine trees ; 
yonder through that small green valley, with gray rocks 
overhanging it, you can place the Scottish chiefs that Walter 
Scott has portrayed, as naturally as though you were among 
the hills and glens of Scotland. 

President Sawyer, Treasurer Smith, Gen. Allen, G. B. Smith 
and others of the party took turns in riding on the cow-catcher 
of the locomotive, and they describe the views tbey got as 
sublime beyond description. They made the ascent to Sher- 
man looking on a scene like a billowy ocean of rock and 
descended from it with a magnificent view before them of the 
snow-capped mountain range and the Laramie plains. 

THE FLAG UNFURLED. 

On arriving at Sherman, the highest point, the flag of the 
State of Wisconsin was brought out and unfurled, and the 
party surrounding it, gave hearty cheers for Wisconsin, the 
town of Sherman and the Union Pacific road. No State flasr 
had ever been unfurled here before, nor probably has a flag of 
any State of the Union been unfurled at so high a point above 
the sea level. In writing of the altitude, I must explain that 
the ascent to it is so gradual as not lo be greatly noticed, and 
it is difficult LO realize that when here we are over a mile- 
higher in the air than when at Madison. All of us have for 
some time been aware of the purity and dryness of the 
atmosphere, and it is such pleasant breathing that we never 
tire of inhaling it. We arrived at Laramie, where we had 
arranged to switch our car ofi" for twenty-four hours, between 
eight and nine o'clock yesterday morning, and got good eating 
accommodations in a large and comfortable hotel. We could 
not better our sleeping arrangements, as the Pullman car is all 
that could be wished. The hotel is on the Laramie plain, sur- 
rounded by the mountains. The sun and air are warm, but 
right before the hotel, and plain in sight although seventy 
miles distant, is the snow capped range of mountains, 13,000 
feet above the sea level. When oppressed with heat from 



CALIFOENIA AND RETURN". 17 

quick walkiDg or any other cause we have only to glance at 
the perpetual snow on these mountain tops, to feel cool. We 
can also see, fjiint in the distance of 100 miles. Long's Peak, 
in Colorado Territory, and closer and plainer in sight, as it is 
only fifty miles distant, is the mountain named Agissaz, in 
honor of the great naturalist, who during last summer staid 
here for a time. The snowy capped mountains are always 
pleasant and attractive to our eyes, and Phil. Parsons, as lie 
lies hot on one of the beds in the Laramie House, looks out 
through the warm and sunny air, and with his eyes resting 
lovingly on the distant snow, emphatically says that he never 
felt so much like being in paradise as now. But he of course 
says this with reference to this sight and not with regard to 
Laramie, which although, ao far as we have seen, quiet and 
orderly, has yet some features the reverse of paradistical. Last 
October, five men were hung here by a vigilance committee 
and Dan. Tenney has the photographs of the scenes in his 
pocket book. They were garroters and robbers and the com- 
munity had to take this course for their own safety and since 
this effective hanging " dead beats " have been scarce in this 
locality. Last night I attended a theatre in which Madam 
Scheller appeared as "Somnambula" and there were four 
women in the audience and about one hundred men, but I 
never saw a better behaved audience anywhere, and their 
prompt applause of the virtuous sentiment of the play delighted 
me. Nearly every other building is a saloon, and in some of 
them I saw girls smoking with men in open daylight. But at 
night this is common in the dance houses, where the orgies 
peculiar to some of the new and fast Western towns are held. 
An advertisement in a paper of the place before me, announces 
that at a certain beer garden, refreshments will be served by 
attractive girls. The price of common lead pencils is twenty- 
five cents each. One of the party paid $1 25 for getting 
shaved and his hair cut, and the lowest currency the people 
stoop to is twenty-five cents. Clear lumber is $150 per 
thousand feet ; but a commoner kind manufactured near 
here, sells for $40. There is a daily paper published here 

2 



18 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

Styled the Sentinel, pulished by Mr. Hayford, formerly the 
prosecuting Attorney of Fond du Lac county. Its politics can 
be judged of by an editorial paragraph, congratulatory of the 
late election, on a clear party issue, of a Republican Alderman 
at Cheyenne. There is a large, brick built, railroad machine 
shop here, but there is not much business in it at present, 
although a change in one of the departments of the railroad 
management gives cheering hope of increased activity. The 
resources of the town are the railroad, the troops in the vicinity 
and the miners in the mountains, and when they are hard up 
the residents must be also. I don't see any completed build- 
ing looking like a church but am glad to see two in the process 
of erection, and away back on the plains, I saw a significant 
sight in a solitary building surmounted with the universal 
cross. 

This morning a photographist of the place came and took a 
picture of the party surrounding the flag of their State. 

The train from the East is nearly four hours late, so that at 
this time, nearly mid-day, we are in Laramie. All the party 
are in excellent health and spirits, and from the wonders they 
have lately seen are full of hope and expectation, regarding 
the tuture journey. 

The singers of the party are General Allen, Colonel Gill, 
Elisha Burdick and Dan. Tenney, and late at night and early 
in the morning their voices blend in patriotic and social songs, 
while the rest of the party, when they feel just right, come in 
strong on the choruses. 

The excellent arrangements of Mr. Hopkins for the journey 
have, so far, been very successful, and Mr. Sawyer makes the 
popular President that Mr. Hopkins, when he nominated him, 
suggested he would be. 

I am glad to discover that there are good day schools and 
Sunday schools in this place, which evidently contains the 
essential germs of American progress and prosperity. 

The people here attribute the more frequent rain storms in 
this section, during this season, to the attraction of the tele- 
graph poles and the circulation caused by the rushing trains. 



CALIFOENIA AND RETURN. 19 

and from these causes predict considerable change in the sea- 
sons. Along side the track, at intervals for about seventy 
miles before reaching Laramie, are snow fences meant to pro- 
tect the track from the heavy snow storms that in winter rush 
through the mountain gorges. 
I expect to date my next letter from Salt Lake City. 



Ride from Laramie to /Salt Lake City — Friday Afternoon to 
Saturday Evening — Awe-inspiring Mountain Scenery — The 
Recent Indian Chastisement — A Rescued Captive — How Indian 
Squaws Kill their Sons — Coal on the Plains — Saloons, as 
Pioneers of Civilization — A Good Supper at Rawlings — Ad- 
miral Farragut and Gen. Dodge — The Wisconsin Car — A 
Morning Ride Along Weber River — The " Z^emTs Lift''^ and' 
" DeviVs Gate " — A Wisconsin Reaper in a Utah Field. 

Salt Lake City, July 26, 1869. 

Here we are in this beautiful and romantically surrounded 
city, where we all arrived in excellent health and spirits, last 
Saturday evening, just as the sun was setting, and the grand 
mountains and noble-looking lakes were seen to their best 
advantage. 

Before giving a sketch of the place, and our doings here,- 1. 
must give the particulars of our railroad trip from Laramie. 
We lelt that place at nearly 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon, 
and after running about twenty miles began to strike the 
mountain range, that to every traveler of taste and feeling, is 
fascinating and impressive. Here we passed close to the Elk 
and Medicine Bow mountains, which rose from the plains in 
solemn grandeur, and on looking at their vast sides and lofty 
peaks that indescribable and swelling feeling which arises in 
the bosom when looking at such monuments of the Creator's- 
power and glory, was first felt in all it force. There were val- 



20 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

leys, stretching in the misty distance, and then the surround- 
ing hills, with rounded rifts of light green, and the ma- 
jestic sides of the leviathan mountains, clothed in entrancing 
light and shade, and, as suggested by the heart's feeling, 
rising to the pure light of God's unchanging presence. Oh ! 
the freshening emotions, while feasting on such a scene as this. 
How revived streams of early feeling course down the choked 
channels of the heart and steep the senses in the exquisite 
associations of early years, when all was fair and hopeful. 
All were impressed with the pervading presence of tl»is Godly 
scene, and even the card players of the party hastily threw 
up their cards and hastened to pay their willing homage to 
Nature and to Nature's God. 

During the afternoon Gen. Augur, the commanding officer 
of the department, and Gov. Campbell, of Wyoming Terri- 
tory, in which Laramie is, and through which we had for some 
■time been running, entered our car and very much entertained 
us with their informatory talk and ideas. Gen. Augur, in tell- 
ing me of the late fight of Gen. Carr's troops with the In- 
dians, fifty miles west of Fort Sedgwick, said that they had 
for some time been after the Cheyennes, who Vere committing 
depredations on the white settlers. Their latest achievement 
was killing a German, with powder and ball supplied by the 
government, and then taking his widow, who had been only 
from the old country six weeks, into the most horrible bond- 
age. After the fight, she was rescued, and her bruised and 
battered face gave evidence of the vindictive usage to which 
she had been subjected by the squaws, one of whom, during 
the fight, fired on her and broke some of her ribs with a rifle 
bullet. The Che3^ennes were unprepared for the attack on 
them, and tis the warriors were on a march, surrounding their 
squaws and popooses, they were suddenly shot down to the 
number of about fifty, with the same promptness that they 
for months past had been shooting down settlers! Some of 
the squaws, during the excitement of the attack, were seen 
killing their papooses, and one was observed to deliberately 
shoot her two fine looking Indian boys, respectively aged 8 and 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 21 

12 years. These bloody scenes occuring on the line of our 
travel, give it a sad interest, and make the lightest thinkino- 
of us reflective. The General tells me that the chief "Tall 
Bull," who was killed, belonged to this tribe, and that the 
Cheyennes are the best looking Indians on the Plains, and this 
opinion would be formed from seeing his bereaved squaw, 
now in prison with other squaws and papooses at Omaha. He 
also tells me that the Indians do not kill their squaw and 
papoose prisoners, but that the victors adopt them into their 
tribes. The Pawnees are friendly to the government, and 
during the summer, a number of them, most efficiently serve 
with our troops, and in the fall are allowed to return to their 
families and look after them through the winter. 

Five or six stations after leaving Laramie, we came to Car- 
bon, where extensive coal fields are worked. The place has 
the look of a Welsh mining town, and the coal is black, and 
of the variety known as Lignite, which is soft and burns 
easily, making excellent cooking and house fuel, and being 
serviceably used by the locomotives. I must here remark on 
what has impressed me during this westward trip, aad this is 
that saloons seem to be the vanguard of civilization. You 
see them on the loneliest stretches of the plain, and when 
hundreds over a thousand miles from Chicago, the familiar 
sign of " Chicago ale for sale here," startles your eyes when 
lonely surrounding plains and mountains make you wonder 
where the drinkers can come from. 

When evening came, with the silvery moonlight again, 
making a fairy scene of the plains and mountains, we stopped 
at Rawlings, over 710 miles west of Omaha, for supper. 
When we left Madison, Wis., we thought, as you probably 
have been thinking, that at such a distance from home and 
beauty, we would find no good refreshment stations or sur- 
rounding comforts ; you will therefore be surprised to learn 
that on stepping on the platform here, we saw a station as 
large and complete as that at Portage City, and with an ad- 
joining large machine shop, perfecting the similitude between 
the two places. Seeing this, and knowing that less than two 



22 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

years ago the place was a desert, where travelers in wagons 
prepared to face the dryness of 150 miles of the Bitter Creek 
country, fills us all with admiration of the successful Ameri- 
can enterprise and pluck here exhibited, which, after an ex- 
cellent and handsomely served supper is enjoyed, is greatly 
increased. 

Just after leaving this place we had an interesting visit 
which filled us all with patriotic fervor. We had heard that 
Admiral Farragat was on the same train, in the car before us, 
but did not expect to have such a pleasant and unexpected 
meeting, as a committee had been appointed to formally invite 
him into our car. The boys were feeling good after supper, 
and were calling on Burdick to recite, for the fourth time, the 
writer's speech to the Westport democrasy, years ago, which, 
by the way, he gets off very amusingly, and with telling 
effect, when a rather short, stout built, elderly looking gentle- 
man entered the car. He was plainly dressed in black, and 
his gray hair and light white whiskers surrounded a face 
beaming with good humor, especially noticeable, when he 
laughingly said, as the noise of those calling on Burdick 
greeted his ears, " Oh, gentlemen, I think I must have made 
a mistake and got into a political meeting." "With these 
words he passed on and would have been unrecognized as 
Admiral Farragut, only that Mr. Hopkins met him at the 
other door, and the gallant Admiral, whose unexcelled 
achievements, toe American people are so justly proud of, at 
once returned with him to be introduced to every individual 
of the party. His strength of memory was shown by his say- 
ing, when shaking hands with General Eusk, " I believe I had 
the pleasure of meeting you in Washington,"' and this remem- 
brance gratified and astonished the General very much, al- 
though the rest of us knew that a man of his size and build, 
once seen, is not easily forgotten. After the introductions 
had been gone through with, the Admiral, for more than an 
hour or so, very entertainingly talked of his travels in Russia, 
of iron-clads, and other informatory subjects. During his talk 
a determined expression was occasionally observed on his face. 



CALIFOKNIA AND RETURN. 23 

which required but slight imagination to magnify into the look 
of steady daring, with which, when lashed to the mast, he 
boldly confronted the enemy's belching forts, while steaming 
up Mobile bay. When he finally said good night, all the 
company were deeply impressed with the humble presence of 
this great man, and Dan Tenney felt so good that he proposed 
three cheers for " Admiral Farragut, the pride of the navy and 
people of America," which were given with the will of appre- 
ciative Badgers, who always admire mind and daring in a good 
cause. Just think of meeting Admiral Farragut in such a 
place — only two years ago a dreary wilderness, but now a na- 
tional railroad thoroughfare, where the great and stirring of 
the land can be met with in crowds. 

Another distinguished gentleman on the train was Gen, G. M. 
Dodge, of Iowa, an engineer, whose enterprise, experience and 
services, in originating and completing the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, have been of incalculable value in making it successful. 
When this road achieves the popularity and destiny, that cer- 
tainly awaits it in the future, the names of Durand and Dodge 
will have a first place in the famed roll of those who, with 
rare confidence and talent, toiled in conceiving and completing 
it. A traveling experience of years among the Plains and 
Rocky Mountains, when their wastes could only be crossed by 
wagon trains, has made General Dodge completely familiar 
with them; and his talk on the subject is so interesting 
and inforraatory, that when he talks, as he often good natnred- 
]j does in our car, there is always a crowd of listeners to profit 
from his remarks. 

Creslon is the next station, after leaving Rawlings, and here 
is what is termed the divide of the American Continent, on 
account of the rivers on the east side flowing into the Atlantic 
and those on the west .side into the Pacific Ocean. 

The run through the Bitter Creek country, which was only 
plain and distant mountain scenery, made going to bed easy, 
in anticipation of the wild and rocky scenery that we ex- 
pected to see in the morning on reaching Wasatch. I saw 
Fort Steele, pleasantly located on the bank of the North 



24: FROM WISCONSIN TO 

Platte River, with the flag aud the soldiers looking well be- 
neath the light of the moon. 

In the morning we all woke up well, some distance from 
"Wasatch, and hungry for the trout breakfast that had been 
ordered for us by telegraph, at that place. The train was 
some two hours behind, from a heated box on one of the cars, 
and before we got to the station we had to partake of some of 
our car supplies, but on getting there at 10 o'clock we did 
ample justice to the plenteous and excellent breakfast sup- 
plied. After leaving Wasatch we began to look out for the 
rocky scenery, and were not disappointed. Snow capped 
mountains began to loom in the distance, and then rocks of 
red sandstone and conglomerate to rear their mighty crests 
close alongside the railroad track. Higher and higher they got 
as we run through Echo canon, and the sublimity of their 
vast sides and far-reaching gulches, filled every eye and im- 
pressed all hearts. In some places, streams of pure and living 
water diversified their ruggeclness, and then again they were 
like stern monarchs, without a jewel or a gem. Now a re- 
freshing rippling is heard, and looking down out of the car 
window, the clear and sparkling water of the Weber River is 
seen, here as gentle as a bashful maid, while on the other side 
a spring stream from the rocks runs gently along the railroad 
track, and when the train reaches the mining town of Echo, 
looking picturesque on the mountain-surrounded plain, with 
its canvass covered stores and houses, the stream is seen run- 
ning all through it, before the doors of the houses. After 
leaving here we run through the Weber canon and see around 
us rocks of every shape, backed by mountains with rifts of 
snow whitely glistening from theu' tops. Now we come to 
where rocks overhang the track, and looking up at them the 
mind can easily conjure fancies of some of these beetling 
crags coming suddenly down upon the train. More cautiously 
we scan their heights of from 1,500 to 3,000 feet, and as we 
descend through a tunnel or two on a grade of ninety feet to 
the mile, we have our minds wrought up to the full pitch of 
feeling. Down one mountain we see a singular rock forma- 



CALIFORNIA AND RETUEN. 25 

tion called the " Devil's Lift," being a straight gully of rock 
about 200 feet long, and apparently just wide enough for the 
Devil to rest his hands on the sides, while swinging himself up- 
The "Weber river begins to give us appropriate music for the 
scene as it foams and tumbles over the rocks into widening 
strength, and looking from the end of our car we see the rocks 
grandly rising behind us in intricate looking folds. Suddenly 
there stands behind us a tree, labelled " one thousand miles 
from Omaha," and this is the tree that the engineers found 
here when surveying the road and tastefully left standing as an 
interesting memento of the place and distance. But we were 
here to see a sight worthy of the sublimest descriptions of 
Byron or Goethe, and the noise of the Weber, now thundering 
along through the rocky chasms, appropriately prepares us for 
it. The rocks rise high and stern to the sky, and down the 
narrow and rugged valley that they form comes the rushing 
Weber, lashed to glistening foam by the opposing rocks, and 
surging through the rocky channel. We cross a high bridge, 
and from it see what is called the "Devil's Gate," in all its 
might and majesty. The water is deeper and the rocks higher 
here than anywhere ; forming an awe-inspiring sight, that 
once seen can never be forgotten. As we approach Uintah we 
first observe vegetation, and notice that the grain and potatoe 
fields look well and thriving, although yet green, from the ar- 
tificial watering. We also see, in one of the fields of ripened 
grain, a cheering sight in a reaper, marked " Case, of Eacine," 
busily at work, and those of us seeing this suggestive re- 
minder of the manufacturers of our own State, at this long 
distance from it, give hearty cheers for Eacine. 

On arriving at the station, stages are in waiting to take us 
the thirty miles to Salt Lake City, and the mountains of the 
valley loom grandly before us. 

But I must now close to catch the mail, and will continue 
the description in another letter. 



26 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

The Visit to Salt Lake City — A Little Story of Tom Reynolds^ 
Medical Experience — An Episode of Staging — From Uintah to 
Salt Lake City — Mormon Farms — Inspiring View of the Lake 
and City — Sulphur Springs and a Bath therein — Stopping at 
a Mormon Hotel — Calls from Distinguished Gentlemen — At the 
Theatre^ Failure to get into the Pit — At the Tabernacle^ Break- 
ing Bread and Preaching by George A. Smith with a History 
of the Mormons — Impression of the Services and Looks of the 
Women — Back to the Railroad in good Health and Spirits but 
Sweltering. 

Salt Lake City, July 26, 1869. 

In my last, I brought my account of our trip to Uintab 
where we took the stages for this place. 

Before starting, on what promises to be a hot ride, as the 
sun and air are very warm, I must tell you about Col. Tom. 
Eeynolds' singular medical experience. While at Laramie he 
was seized with an inconvenient ache and at once resorted to 
medical advice. Dr. Bowen, who came along, at once gave the 
Colonel an homeopathic dose which brought him up some. 
Shortly afterwards Dr. Treat came along and gave him Allo- 
pathic treatment. This neutralized the first dose and the 
Colonel was again sinking when Philo Dunning insisted that 
he should try one of his seidlitz powders. This he did do but 
he got an awakener that he didn't expect, and in his extremity 
he called for more advice, which Mr. Burdick promptly gave 
him in the shape of a dose of watered quinine. This brought 
him out all right, 'and when the train left Laramie, he was 
seen with his hands resting on his cane, while he said with a 
smiling face, " I have survived two systems of medical treat- 
ment, and got cured on irregular but very potent remedies." 

We left Uintah for Salt Lake in three stages, carrying the 
whole of our party. The station is quite thick with canvass- 
covered stores and saloons, and in the latter there is plenty of 
pure water, cooled by strong, bright-looking ice, taken from 
the river Jordan in winter and carefully preserved. The con- 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN". 27 

trast between the easy starting of a railroad train and the 
moving of these stages was very marked. Finally, after all 
were loaded and the usual number of questions were asked 
and answered about all the baggage being inside or outside, 
the four horses to each stage were whipped up and the stages 
began moving. We went along a mountain surrounded road, 
which at the start was rather rough, but as we progressed got 
smoother. In the gardens alongside the road there were plenty 
of peach and apricot trees, and on some of them the lucious 
fruit hung thick and heavy. As we advanced, wheat, corn, 
potato, and one or two barley jBelds followed in quick succes- 
sion. The wheat was in the shock, and, while each bundle 
shone like gold, the heads looked full and heavy. The hedges 
along the roadside gave the scene an old country apperance, 
similar to that in the vicinity of mountainous Cumberland or 
Scotland and "Wales. The similitude was increased by the 
stone fences and adobe houses that frequently attracted the 
eyes, and above all by the hollyhocks that clustered around 
every house and showed their welcoming flowers from every 
garden. In one nice garden, there was a shaded arbor in 
which sat three pleasant looking women, while at a distance, 
reading a paper in the shade, reclined a contented-looking 
Mormon, and we style him thus according to the information 
of the stage-driver, who, like many of his kind, abounded with 
pointed talk and good feeling. In some of the enclosures there 
were two or three houses, showing the number of the proprie' 
tor's wives ; and on every side evidences of thrift and high cul- 
tivation filled the eye. But all this cultivated beauty has 
been produced by the most careful and unremitting labor on 
the stony soil, which has directed the cooling and moistening 
water in many channels, thus causing the dry soil to bloom and 
blossom like a rose. But there now looms up before us the 
great Salt Lake, and that mountain rising from its placid 
bosom is Church Island. Far away the water stretches, sixty 
miles long by twenty wide, like a mirror. The varied shades 
of mountains loom on every side, and dark vales, and brown 
and snow-capped summits make a diversity that never tires 



28 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

the eye. After a dusty ride of ten miles, the stages change 
horses at a comfortable roadside eating house. The barkeeper 
had not to run out for water, as a beautiful fresh stream from 
the mountains trickled alftng a channel in the soil floor, and 
appeared in a large stream running by the front door towards 
Salt Lake. Oh ! what comfort the dusty passengers took in 
drinking and washing in this clear and living water. Some 
could only with difficulty tear themselves away, and all felt 
it good to be near such a beautiful stream. At the next stop, 
ping place, we got plenty of ripe apricots, peaches and apples, 
and more delicious cold water. But there was plenty of this, 
as living streams flowing from the mountains crossed the road 
at every rod or two, and the horses' feet were constantly mois- 
tened with it. Off again on the third and last stage, and with 
the big mountains looming over Salt Lake City coming 
stronger into view. Up an ascending hill, and then from its 
summit we see Salt Lake City nestled at the foot of the solemn 
looking mountains. And, Oh ! what a sight is here, for the 
artist, the poet, and to give inspiration to the coldest mind. 
Those who have been in Italy see here familiar resemblances ; 
those who have breathed the mountain air of Scotland look at 
the lake and up at the mountains and vales, and can easily 
fancy that they breathe it again, and the cherished associations 
of every beholder can find some sweet place on which to rest 
with the old and deep feeling of early years. We have all 
along seen large flocks of black and white sheep and goats, 
and now we see them all over the plain. The driver pulls up 
and stops opposite a rock from which flows a strong stream of 
living water. We go to it and find that it is near the boiling 
point in warmth, and thoroughly impregnated with sulphur. 
I wash my hands in it, and find that it easily cleanses them 
and makes them feel very comfortable. Shortly afterwards 
we pass a bathing-house, where hot sulphur plunge and other 
baths are announced, and we all say in a breath that the time 
will not be long, before we are in them. Before us are the 
long, broad streets of Salt Lake City, and the surrounding 
level plain shows patches of shrubbery and regular cultivation. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 29 

We pass by stone houses, surrounded by large stone fences, 
and driving through the business streets, lined with neat red 
stone, brick and wooden buildings, draw up before the Town- 
send House, handsomely shaded at the front by locust and 
walnut trees. The landlord is a Mormon, and the reason of 
the party staying at this House, is because of a desire to see 
something of the Mormon system. Host Townsend is a 
pleasant, jovial looking man, who seems to get along very 
comfortably with his four wives, one of whom most efficiently 
aids him in the management of the house. We are soon made 
comfortable here, and after supper we all start for the theatre ; 
but before leaving have the pleasure of calls from ex-U. S. 
Senator Durkee, the Governor of the Territory, and from Hon. 
W. H. Hooper, the delegate in Congress from Utah Territory. 
The theatre is a large building with a handsome stone front, 
and the inside shows a commodious stage, an elegant drop 
scene and a crowded pit, dress circles and upper galleries. You 
can easily judge that the pit is occupied by Mormons, from 
noticing that the majority of spectators are women, and that 
men with three women around them, are numerous. Some of 
President Young's wives are in his box, but I only got a 
glimpse of them, insufficient for reliable description. I made 
two attempts to get into the pit among the Mormons, but 
could'nt come it, and Dan. Tenney, one of the boldest of the 
party, was also denied the charmed entrance. The good moral 
play of the " Drunkard " was first presented, followed by the 
overfast and stupid farce of " Pocahontas ;" the childish play 
on words which seems to be the chief drift of the play, not 
being apparently in the least appreciated or even understood 
by most of the Morrnon audience, which, in my opinion, was 
very much to their credit. The music, the acting of Chaplin 
and the dancing of Miss Ward of Omaha were good, and some 
of the young Mormon girls spoke and appeared well on the 
stage. 

A SULPHUROUS TREAT. 

This fair Sunday morning I am the first to enjoy a bathe in 
the sulphur bath house. I got up before seven o'clock and 



30 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

walked one mile and a half along the silent and mountain-sur- 
rounded streets, occasionally stooping to quench my thirsi 
from the clear and bubbling streams that repeatedly cross my 
path. When at the bath house I pay twenty-five cents, and 
getting a towel, repair to a large square, wood-enclosed space, 
filled with sulphur water, and through which the same is con- 
tinually pouring. In the centre of this bath, a stream of cold, 
pure water, led from the higher part of the mountain, refresh- 
ingly showers around from a sprinkler. When in the bath, I 
feel as though swimming around in warm milk, and the effect 
on the system is most soothing and beneficial. After a suffici- 
ent stay in the bath, I get out and take the tonic effect of the 
cold spring water under the sprinkler. I walk to the hotel 
with renewed vigor, strongly inhaling the occasional drafts of 
mountain air. During the morning, the rest of the party 
visited the sulphur baths, and all were delighted and benefitted 
by their effect. 

THE TABERNACLE. 

On Sunday afternoon, at 2 o'clock, Mr. Hooper came to es- 
cort the party to the Tabernacle. As nearly every inch of 
this singular looking building has been again and again de- 
scribed, I will merely state that its outside is long, large and 
lofty, shaped like a turtle's back ; and of a grayish blue color. 
A lofty flag staff surmounts the building, which, in the shade 
of evening, can only with difficulty be recognized from the 
surrounding mountains. On entering the building, its vast- 
ness and the plain but smoothly plastered walls are most im- 
pressive. The air is cool inside, and very welcome it is after 
walking under the hot sun, and the hundreds of seats are oc- 
cupied by a congregation numbering thousands, and the full 
extent of the Tabernacle is not in use, as a large veil of white 
cloth sets apart about one-third of it. In a front desk, stand 
and sit a number of elders, who are busy breaking bread into 
silver baskets. Some of them are elderly, pleasant looking 
men, and others are younger and sharper looking. Music be- 
gins pealing from the lofty and handsomely ornamented organ, 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 31 

only one-third less in size than the famed one at Boston, and 
the sweet singing of a choir swells the melody. This over 
one of the elders blesses the bread and it is passed around to 
the congregation by men who carry the silver baskets. A 
basket is sent to delegate Hooper, and he, on taking a piece of 
bread, asks several of our party won't they break bread with, 
them ? One or two of our party do this, and the basket is 
passed on. Brigham Young is in the Tabernacle, but from 
where I sit, on the front seat, he is not in sight. George A. 
Smith, one of Young's Council of Twelve, then appears and 
begins preaching. He is stout, has a broad red face, with a 
good humored expression and wears a white neckcloth and 
black clothes. He opens a Bible and reads a portion of the 
11th chapter of the Prophecies of Isaiah, in which the laying 
down of the lion and the lamb is mentioned. He then gave 
an historical account of the origin, wanderings and oppressions 
of the Mormons. He spoke of how Joe Smith received light 
by revelation, and gave his own experience in getting to the 
light. He then described the march of the pioneer saints to 
the then desert of Salt Lake, where they arrived twenty-two 
years ago. He spoke of the struggles they made, and the 
privations they endured to make the arid soil yield them sus- 
tenance, and cited its present fertility as a cheering sign that 
the blessing of God was with them and their church. They 
had been oppressed and driven from Jackson county, Mo., and 
Nauvoo, III, at which last named place their prophet was 
murdered, and came here to enjoy the religious liberty war- 
ranted to them by the constitution of the country that they all 
supported. When the constitution of the United States was 
lived up to, he expected that the Mormons would be able to 
return to Nauvoo, their God-chosen and favorite place, and be 
able to live in peace. They were oppressed then and they 
were oppressed now, and the only reason for this that he knew 
of, was their sobriety, honesty and good order. During his re- 
marks one of the elders asked a blessing on the water, and sil- 
ver mugs containing the cooling fluid were passed around, 
and I noticed that several of our party took hearty drinks 



32 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

from them, as I also did myself. The preacher concluded by 
expressing the hope that the Mormons might be allowed to 
live in peace, with good will towards all, and that the blessing 
of Grod might continue to rest on them. His manner was can- 
did and prepossessing, and although he did not touch on the 
doctrine c>f polygamy, that all the visitors were anxious to 
hear about, he gave an interesting address. Several of the 
visitors, members of other churches, said that from what they 
had heard and seen, they did not discover much that differed 
from their regular services. As the immense congregation 
was dispersing, I looked into the faces of the women and could 
not discover that there was anything particularly downcast 
about them, which appearance the descriptions of previous 
writers have repeatedly given them. I have frequently seen 
such looking congregations in the denominational churches of 
England, Wales and Scotland; and although individuals may 
show such a look, certainly as a congregation they do not. 
After this we had an interview in the Tabernacle with Brig- 
ham Young and some of his leading counsellors, but I must 
defer writing of this, and our pleasant visits in the city, until 
my next. 

We left Salt Lake City this Tuesday morning, the 27th in- 
stant, between three and four o'clock, and are now, at half 
past two o'clock in the afternoon, at Uintah, sitting in our 
comfortable sleeping car "Eawlings," and waiting for the 
train from the East to come and take us along. It is now 
over four hours late and is expected here at 3 P. M. 

All the company are in excellent health and spirits, and at 
this time are expressing their gratitude at being so comfort- 
ably sheltered from the hot sun and air. The citizens of Mad- 
ison are probably suffering from rain and a cold air, but we for 
days have seen an unclouded sky, and every night a bright 
moon. At this time the sun is bright, the air warm, and all 
of us are in the condition know as sweltering. 

After this date, please direct letters and papers to the party 
at Laramie, Wyoming Territory, care of Hon, B. F. Hopkins. 

We expect to arrive in San Francisco next Saturday, and 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN, 33 

may possibly stay there for a week or more, as visits to Yo 
Semite Valley and other celebrated resorts are contemplated. 



From Salt Lake to Elko — Salmon Trout Fishing and the Pen- 
alty — A Mining Town — Promontory and the Last Tie — 2he 
Chinese Laborers — Salt Lake Basin and Desert — Steep 
Grades — The Central Pacific Railroad — Humboldt Valley — • 
Elko^ White Pine Passengers and California Fruits — A Specie 
Currency — Writing En Route — An Excursion Song. 

Elko, Nevada, July 28, 1869. 

"We got liere to a good breakfast, between eight and nine 
o'clock this morning. When we left Uintah, yesterday after- 
noon, the weather was very hot and sultry, and Dan. Tenney and 
Colonel Gill felt its power more than any of the rest of us, as 
they had gone to fish in a stream adjacent to the car, and, 
when the Westward-bound train came along, they had to run 
to catch it. Dan. caught three salmon trout, but, from the 
trout he has so far seen, he does not hanker after them, as they 
are not so small and tender as the trout caught in the streams 
of Wisconsin. He caught three, and, for the luxury of doing 
this, had to run so fast in the heat to catch the train, that one 
who saw his perspiring face did not envy him his sport. 

We got a good supper at Promontory, and here saw the first 
evidence of a mining town in a hard looking man, with blue 
spectacles on and a cunning wagging tongue, presiding at a 
three-card monte table, and endeavoring to tempt betters to try 
to get some of the pile of gold pieces heaped before him. 
Here is the location of the celebrated ^^ike and tie, but all 
that can now be seen is the tie in a very slim condition, caused 
by the cuttings of curiosity-seekers. 

After leaving Promontory, we saw the Chinese laborers that 
are now attracting such attention, and so startling some minds 

8 



34 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

that are not fully awake to the great spirit of the present and 
future time. We saw crowds of them in their tents and sitting 
on construction cars, and no cleaner or more contented looking 
laborers could be seen. When our party saw them their first 
impulse was to cheer them, which they did with a will, while 
the Celestials returned the greeting by showing their ivory and 
broad smiles. 

So long as it was light, last night, I sat on the rear end of 
the car and looked out on the excellently constructed gravel 
road bed that the train swiftly ran on. 

Before reaching Promontory, the peculiarity of the Salt Lake 
basin had been pointed out to me, seen in the two water 
benches strongly marked on the mountains. One is higher 
than the other, and the theory concerning tliem is, that the 
basin was once filled with water, and that its two subsidencies 
are shown by these marks. Evaporation must be very rapid 
here, as perspiration stays only momentarily on the skin, and 
after washing your hands they are almost dry before you 
begin wiping them. Its pov/er is also realized when you see 
the waters of the Bear, Weber and other rivers constantly flow- 
ing into the lake, and discover that its fresh water only 
amounts to twenty-five per cent, of the whole. These water 
benches are very useful to engineers in judging the height of 
the mountains, and General Dodge says they have greatly 
aided him in the work. 

Before reaching Promontory we go up some high grades, 
among rocks and mountains, and so curved is the track that 
the train has to be divided and each part drawn by a separate 
engine. 

We leave Promontory on the track of the Central Pacific 
road, whose grade constructed for 120 miles east of Promon- 
tory, close alongside the track of the Union Pacific, shows the 
competition that tlie bait of the Government subsidy presents. 
Every traveler on these good roads must wish that the differ- 
ences between their management may be harmoniously adjust- 
ed, so that such energy may be more beneficially applied to the 
interests of this great National route. 



CALIFOENIA AND RETURN. 35 

Between Promontory and the next station the train runs 
forty miles without a stop, through the Salt desert. Salt 
Lake is yet in the distance on one side of us, surrounding 
large mountains, and around us is a white crusted plain, the 
wildness and sterility of which can only be adequately con- 
ceived from being seen. I look out of the window and all I 
see is the long line of telegraph poles and the dry plain, and I 
get the impression that the scene is like a "Wisconsin prairie 
in November when lightly and scatteringly covered bv the 
first early snow. Through the dull gloom I come upon Monu- 
ment Eock, looming out of Salt Lake, its bareness and rug- 
gedness making it an appropriate accessory of the sterile view. 
The air is deliciously cool after the hot air of the afternoon, 
and this is the reason of some of the party and myself not 
retiring to our clean and comfortable beds, which our earlv 
rise and jogging stage ride from Salt Lake City have amply 
prepared us for. 

I must here state that we have retained the elegant Pull- 
man car Pawlings, and ride along in it to Sacramento, sur- 
rounded by ever}^ convenience. 

On awaking on Wednesday morning, I found myself breathing 
the cold air of the Humboldt Valley, and saw the snow capped 
mountains of Humboldt rising gradually around. Chinese 
tents and gangs of Chinese laborers, with the regular hats, 
pigtails, frocks and shoes, were frequently passed, and the 
sight gave the road an agreeable novelt}^, until we arrived at 
the lively, mining town of Elko, where we stopped for an hour 
and a half to take breakfast and to receive the passengers 
coming from the White Pine mines, distant 120 miles from 
Elko. Here we got ripe plums, peaches and apples from Cali- 
fornia, of large size and fine flavor, and saw and lifted large 
leathern bags containing silver bricks from the mines and 
going by express to New York city. Some of our party 
visited the Chinese quarters, and heard from a Chinaman that 
they could get their washing done for $2 per dozen. They 
also report seeing some fat wholesome looking Chinawomen 
standing beside their canvass tents and all looking smiling and 



36 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

amiable. Elko is an animated looking plaee and the big 
wagons, eaoh drawn by eight span of mule^, that are eon- 
stantly carrying stores to the mountains and returning ire m 
them with silver, make it more so. Here we found our paper 
currency at 40 per cent discount for silver, the coins of which 
^vore being fi'eely handled and circulated. The Indians we 
saw were Shoshoues, and the faces of the women and children, 
with their piercing black eyes, giving them an intelligent 
look, bad good features. 

At Promontory, where we got our supper, the host paid 
$2 per barrel for his drinking water, brought by the cars from 
a creek about eight miles distant The price of the excellent 
supper, served with the meat and every edible good, was only 
$1.00 each. 

At Elko I met Colonel Dow, formerly connected with the 
press at Hastiug-s, Minnesota, and latterly with the Oregon 
press. He is now in the mining claim business. 

I intended to mail this letter at Elko, but the sudden depar- 
ture of the train prevented me. and you may judge of the 
smoothness of the road when I inform you that nearly all this 
letter was written with the tiraiu running at f«ll speed. 

The following is the extemporized excursion song which the 
party have begun singing morning and evening and before 
meals. The last tones are now ringing in my ear as the train 
approaches the dinner station, and I send you the lines entire 
so that our friends in Madison may also begin singing them : 



EXCURSION SONG. 
TrxK— " R/>sifi tt< Sow." 

W« cone IHmi the Stat^ of Wisconsin. 

W« txaat from the }><H^plo we know. 
Wo como frx^ta wlist <i»«v *paf '• N<wih\re«tem " 

And to the l"^cific vre go. 

Chords— And to the P«cific wo iro. oh. ho. 
And to the Tscifif wo po. 
We come from whst *«,v waf *• Xorthvrestenj,' 
And to the P»cific wo g-o. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 37 

Wo first striko tho Stnto of tho "Suckoisi," 

And ou throuvrU tho '• Uawk-eyo" not slow. 
We ftillow n»o riatto of Nobraska 

.lust touching on Colorailo. 

Cuoius— .lust touching ou, &c. 

Then climbing the heights of Wyoming, 

At Sherman In sight of tho snow 
Unfurling our ilag of Wisconsin, 

With ocean eight thousand bolow. 

Chorvs— With ocean, I'^c. 

We stop at tlw great Mormon city. 

The city of Womou and woo. 
And there meet "immortal l^rlgham" 

The husband of fifty or so. 

Chorus— Tho husband of fifty or so, &c. 

Tlience on through the silv'ry Nevada 

Whoso gorges and canyons echo. 
Till wo drop in tho beautiful valley 

A\'l\ere nestles old Sacramonto. 

Chorus— Whore nestles, Ac. 

Thus counting our miles by tho thousand. 

From i>eoplo, to people wo know. 
The men of what oiicf was "Northwestern," 

Greet now Western San Francisco. 

Chouvs— Oroct now Western, Ac. 

I will finish the account of the Salt Lake City visit, when 
more settled. 



Afore about Salt Lake and the Monyiojis — A Talk loith Brigham 
Young on Polijgamij^ Women., kc. — Mormonism and its Pros- 
pects — Arrival at Sacramento. 

Car "Rawlings," 

On the Road between Promontory and Sacramento, 

July 28, 1869. 

I may as well conclude my account of the Salt Lake trip 
here, riding in this elegant car and on this smooth track, as 
anywhere else. 



g8 FROM T^ISco^'SI^' to 

brigham: young. 

In my last letter I brought the party face to face with 
Brio-bam Young, the Mormon President of the State of De- 
seret We were severally introduced to him by Mr. Hooper, 
and then Hon. Geo. B. Smith, and others of the party, asked 
the leader questions and received very prompt answers. The 
leader is stout built, over middle age, has light blue eyes, 
light brown beard, and a pleasant or determined expression, 
as the case may be. One of the party suggested that the 
crusade against Mormonism was on account of its encourage- 
ment of polygamy. The leader expressed his belief that this 
was only the ostensible, and not the real cause ; and asked if 
polygamy was to be compared to the system by which thous- 
ands of females were ruined and wasted in the large cities of 
the Union. One of the party suggested that on account of 
the extravagance in dress, adopted by the women, it was only 
with difficulty that most young men could afibrd to support 
one wife. At this, a stern expression came on Brigham's face, 
and he stiffly shook his head as he said : '* This is owing to 
the man not having the confidence of the woman, and his not 
being able to manage her by the strength of religion and faith. 
TVith this I can easily manage a multiplicity of wives, and 
make them throw such triffles as fiine dress, and other vanities, 
to the wind ; but I must confess that women, without religion 
and faith, are hard to manage, and with any of such 1 don't 
want to have anything to do." He said plainly that the sys- 
tem of polygamy was repugnant to him, but that until he had 
some plain manifestations from God that it was wrong, he 
should uphold it He said that the government had once 
attempted interference with their church, and had received a 
warning that it could not safely be done, and if it tried it 
again, he believed that God would still sustain his church, and 
overtake its assailants with confusion. His talk was that of a 
man who so sincerely believed in his religion as to be quite 
careless of the stern facts and the inexorable logic of history. 
The indignant feeling of the whole civilized world might 
surge against Mormonism, but he was prepared to breast the 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 39 

(to liim) contemptible wave, and if necessary, to die like a 
game rooster in the midst of his wives. 

To a man of the world, who has read, thought and acted, 
there is nothing remarkable about Brigham Young, or the 
origin, character or system of his religion. Any adventurer, 
with a little capital, can have a revelation, and if he have in 
connection with it a commonplace mind and nerve, and favor- 
ing circumstances, he can get converts in this world to any 
channel of thought or form of religion he may have a design 
to adopt. The strength of a religious impression is deep 
while it lasts, and on its continuance, with regard to the Mor- 
mon or any other church, is based the strength of the religion. 
If Mormonism holds out against the opinion of the civilized 
world, concentrated to destroy it, there will be a grander 
display of the power of faith and favor of the Lord, than the 
history of the world has yet afforded. At all events, the 
leaders of the Mormon church seem to cling to polj^gamy with 
the tenacity of life, when the last waves of faint carmine hue 
are feebly murmuring on the dark shores of death. With 
polygamy they will traverse deserts, locate on rocks, bear 
hunger, thirst and every imaginable privation, and without it, 
they will die at the first cloud of disaster or defeat. Take 
polygamy from the Mormon church, and it has no objective 
point different from the other denominational religions ; retain 
it, and there is the secretiveness, the jealous}', the fear, the 
fawning of the Mohomedan faith, of which Mormonism, in 
Salt Lake City, is a disgusting and feeble counterpart. And yet, 
it is a fact, that this dark branch of patriarchal and Sultanic 
government, now flourishes in full-blow leaf and fruit, within 
thirty miles of the greatest railroad in the world, daily bring- 
ing the influences of the sects and residents of the fast cities 
of the United States to inspect it And Brigham, the head 
of the church, with the pluck of a full-blooded rooster, fears 
not to meet the inspection, and deliberately hastens the facili- 
ties by arranging for a railroad from Uintah to Salt Lake City, 
some of the grading of which, under his management, is 
already done. Our party found the thirty-five miles stage 



40 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

ride from Uintali to Salt Lake City and back again, the most 
fatiguing part of the trip from Wisconsin to Sacramento, and 
not one of them cares how soon the railroad is completed to 
Salt Lake City, by Brigham Young or any body else. And 
when any company get to Salt Lake City, by the railroad, 
stage or any other conveyance, they will see just such a city 
as they can see by the score in Wales or in England. But 
there is this remarkable difference between Salt Lake City and 
the severally equal populous villages of Grreat Britain and Ire- 
land. In the latter places, the laws of the realm can be and 
are enforced, while at Salt Lake, the same national law that 
you and other millions of good and true men have to live up 
to, is not, and apparently cannot be enforced 

We have got to Sacramento, and I must continue my Salt 
Lake City experiences, and endeavor to describe the wonder- 
ful views that I have seen on this Central Pacific road, from 
early light until this 1.30 P. M. of Thursday, the 29th of 
July, in my next. 






More about Mormonism — Arrival at Sacramento — The Thread of 
Narrative Resumed — Salt Lake City and its Institutions — The 
Hatefulness of Polygamy — Opposition Developing amxmg the 
Mormons — Courtesies from Mr. Hooper — Visit to Camp 
Douglas and Gen. Gibbon — Entertainments by Mr, Head. Gov. 
Durhee and Delegate Hooper — Tlie Grave of Gov. Doty — A 
Breakfast Swindle — " Turned up Again." 

Sacramento, July 29, 1869. 

After a delightful railroad trip from fnitah station, passing 
through some of the grandest scenery in the world, we ar- 
rived in this garden of flowers and fruit, between 1 and 2 
o'clock to-day. 

But before I endeavor to describe the wonderful scenery 
that my eyes have feasted on, and which now so crowds on 



CALIFORNIA AND EETURN. 41 

my mind as to make thoughts on other subjects difficult, I 
must finish my write about Salt Lake City. 

I referred in my last to one United States law that is not 
able to be enforced in Salt Lake City, and that is the enact- 
ment against polygamy ; no indictment for which can be re- 
turned, for the simple reason that no jury can be got to do it. 
The Mormons claim that the United States Constitution does 
not warrant such an indictment, on the ground that it is an 
interference with the religious liberty that it guarantees ; but 
the opponents of polygamy, and their number is legion and 
their feeling against it bitter, state that this element of the 
Mormon faith is strange to the spirit of the Constitution, and 
that the public policy of a great and progressive people, de- 
mands that it should be repressed. The exclusiveness of the 
Mormon religion is seen in Salt Lake City, in many forms that 
disgust and imbitter Gentiles against the selfish faith. The 
signs over the Mormon stores with " Holiness to the Lord," 
surmounting an all-seeing eye, under which is " Zion's Co- 
operative Association,'' and at which, all Mormons, by Brig- 
ham Young's edict, are bound to trade ; the stern discourage- 
ment of any social intercourse between Mormon women and 
G-entiles ; the rumors, stories and inuendoes that fill the air 
about Mormon vigilance and vengeance, all are calculated to 
make the institution abhorrent to ninety-five out of every one 
hundred men and women who come along. I know that the 
natural instinct and practice of the free Eepublican Govern- 
ment of the United States, is to encourage the broadest liberty 
of thought and action to every individual ; but all must know 
that there is a limit formed by public sentiment, which in any 
critical emergency, always controls and leads the Government, 
beyond which this liberty cannot pass. The Mormon church 
and its followers have at the present time the largest liberty 
and license. They can do what the men and women of Wis- 
consin, living under the same flag and United States law, can- 
not do without being indicted and punished. They recognize 
Brigham Young as a President, not only of a Church, but of a 
State, which they call Deseret. It is true that the United States 



42 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

flag floats over their Tabernacle and public buildings, and that 
the United States officers enforce the revenue laws, but. it is also 
true that the same public senthnent that in Yirginia saved 
Jeff! Davis, in Utah Territory protects and encourages polyg- 
amy. No stronger instance of the power of public sentiment 
could be presented. Just imagine one little drop of water re- 
fusing to mingle with an ocean and even stopping its flow, 
and then you get an exact idea of the marvelous potency of 
this pubRc sentiment in Utah. How long it can resist the 
strong tide and intercourse set in motion by the railroad, is an 
interesting and general subject of speculation. 

I have written thus of Salt Lake and its prominent institu- 
tion because the ideas presented are those evolved in conver- 
sations on the railroad cars and wherever Gentiles cono-reo-ate 
on the way to or at Salt Lake City. But the expression I 
have given, is feeble, when compared with the impassioned ut- 
terances of Gentile visitors whose indignation against the 
polygamy branch of Mormonism is loud and deep. 

When seeing Brigham several of our party remarked that 
his shirt and collar did not look as though a multiplicity of 
wives promoted neatness, but I take no stock in this remark, 
believing that the natural taste of a man has much to do with 
making him neat or otherwise, as I know several men each 
blessed with a particular wife, whose appearance with regard 
to fastidious neatness of dress is no better than that of Brig- 
ham Young. 

But I must candidly write that the institution of polygamy 
shows no lack of thrift and industry in the appearance of Salt 
Lake City, or in the good order and proper behavior observ- 
able in its streets, I heard stories of Gentiles being watched 
and followed around, but I discovered no such surveillance, 
and walked around at my ease without .noticing any grey- 
eyed, black-bearded Mormon following me ; although I did 
discover, with regret, that wherever I met a woman she low- 
ered or averted her face so that I could not see how her ex- 
pression was. 
At this time there is a significant movement in Salt Lake 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 43 

City, whicb, in the opinion of some, may araownt to something. 
Two of Joe Smith's sons are preaching against the polygamy 
branch of Mormonism, and some of our party, who heard one 
of them, say that the congregation was large and interesting. 
The young men asked Brigham to let them preach in the Tab- 
ernacle, but he refused, and they say now that they intend to 
keep on preaching the true faith in the city, without fear or 
favor from him. 

A BADGER ENTERTAINMENT. 

After visiting the Tabernacle and taking stock of Brigham, 
but not in him, the party were invited, by J. H. Head, Esq., 
formerly a lawyer of Kenosha, but latterly^ Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs at Utah, to accompany him to his house. Here 
we were very hospitably received by his amiable wife, and 
in her I recognized a former belle of Kenosha city, where she 
was the generally admired Miss Durkee. The luscious fruits 
and other refreshments were served on a verandah and under 
the shade of trees, and the fruit-laden boughs of apple, plum 
and apricot trees, and the surrounding mountains looming to 
the sky, formed a scene that could be easily associated with 
the frequently pictured scenes of France and Italy. After a 
delightful hour or so, with their Badger hosts, the company 
prepared for departure ; and, when leaving, met ex-United 
States Senator Durkee, of Wisconsin, and now Governor of 
Utah, and his wife, who both extended to the party a cordial 
invitation to visit their house next day, which was accepted. 
Mrs. Head and her little daughter were to leave Uintah the 
next day with Perry Smith's railroad party, bound for Ken- 
osha, and the good, wishes of the party certainly accompanied 
her. I understood Mr. Head to say that he shortly intended 
to return to Kenosha, and would probably permanently settle 
in Wisconsin. 

In walking back to the hotel, Mr. Hooper pointed out some 
very nice red sandstone which was being cut for a building, 
and plenty of which can be got from the Wasatch range of 
mountains, near the city. Brigham's house is surrounded by 



44: FROM WISCONSIN TO 

a high stone wall, and a lion, bee hive and other emblems 
surmount the various wings. 

The next morning, Mr. Hooper took us to the roof of the 
Tabernacle, from which we got a beautiful view of Salt Lake 
city, and the surrounding country of mountain, lake and plain. 
Going up the substantially built stairs is like making the 
ascent of a mountain, and more than one, before getting to the 
top, puffed like a porpoise. Before leaving the Tabernacle, we 
more closely inspected the magnificent organ, which is only 
one-third less, than the largest one in Boston. It is not yet 
finished, the builder, who is from London, England, being yet 
at work on it, as he will be for some time longer. Outside 
the present Tabernacle is the foundation for the new one, 
built of very fine, hard, white granite. 

TO CA5IP DOUGLAS, 

We enjoyed, on one of the evenings of our stay, a delightful 
visit to Camp Douglas, where General Gibbon is stationed, in 
command of portions of the Second and Seventh U. S. infantry 
regiments. The General is well and popularly known to many 
Badgers, who served in the army during the war, and the 
invitation to visit his camp that he sent to his Iriend General 
Allen, was at once accepted by the party. The evening was 
very pleasant, when we rode up hill, over two miles, to the 
camp, beautifully located on a level plain, surrounded by 
mountains, and through a gorge of which, the bright, crescent- 
shaped moon was seen mildly beaming. From a lofty staff the 
stars and stripes distended in the fresh evening breeze, and 
fronting it were the soldiers at evening drill. Down came the 
flag, the reports of sergeants and officers were made, and then 
the full band attached to this post, as the headquarters of 
General Gibbon's regiment, 'gave a series of excellently 
selected airs, including the " Mocking Bird," the programme 
for which had been printed at the camp by Lieutenant and 
Adjutant William S. Starring, JJ. S. A., who also circulated 
the programmes among the party. Hearing the entrancing 
music, in such a scene, and seeing the groups of soldiers, 



CALIFOENIA AND RETURN. 45 

women and children at the comfortable wooden quarters, 
gave an attractive idea of a U. S. soldier's life in a western 
camp, during peace. 

GOVERNOR DURKEE's ENTERTAINMENT. 

On Monday afternoon the party visited Governor Durkee's 
and enjoyed a similar entertainment to that at the house of his 
niece, Mrs. Head. The refreshment tables were spread in the 
open air, under trees, and while we partook of the luscious 
fruits, gazed on green verdure and tempered the warm air by. 
looking towards the blue mountains, the towering cap of 
one of which was glistening with snow. Words cannot do 
justice to the courteous treatment we received from Governor 
Diirkee and his estimable wife ; but sufficient to write that 
they heartily produced in Salt Lake City, the sociality and 
freedom of a Wisconsin gathering. The Governor complained 
of correspondents of papers who had charged the non-enforce- 
ment of the United States laws in Salt Lake City upon him ; 
when the fact is that without the indictment of a jury and the 
warrant of a court to act on, he is as much of a nonentity, so 
far as the enforcement of law is concerned, as Brigham Young 
desires he should be. He expects to leave Utah this fall, and 
pleasantly looks forward to a perhaps permanent settlement in 
Wisconsin. When leaving, the party gave Governor Durkee 
and his wife, three rousing Wisconsin cheers, that are always 
sustaining to friends and terrible to foes. 

WHERE HE SLEEPS. 

One of the most suggestive and interesting visits made by 
the party, was that to the grave of James Daane Doty, formerly 
one of Wisconsin's popular Governors. His remains lie in the 
cemetery near Camp Douglas, which overlooks Salt Lake val- 
ley, and near which the mountains seem to keep solemn guard. 
Respectfully the party surrounded the red sandstone monu- 
ment and summoned to mind the memory of one who but a 
few years ago was a whole-souled Badger, and who entered 
the " shadow of the valley of death " when, with the pioneer 



46 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

spirit that always distinguished him, he was on the frontier 
that he loved. His grave is in just such a place as a pioneer 
in a thoughtful moment would choose for his earthly remains ; 
and when Badgers visit Salt Lake City, as they will do in the 
tide of across-the-conti)ient railroad travel, they will not neg- 
lect to profit from the sublimity of Governor Doty "s grave, and 
to get an impressive reminder of the past by visiting it. 

HOOrER's ENTERTAINMENT. 

On Monday evening, Mr. Hooper, the delegate in Congress 
from Utah Territory for the past ten years, gave us a tasteful 
entertainment at his home. He is a Mormon, but fortunately 
has a wife who knows enough to only let him love and cher- 
ish her, which he does do very devotedly, as also an interesting 
family of three young daughters. Mrs. Hooper is an amiable 
looking lady, as smiling and handsome as Wisconsin women 
usually are, which is paying her the best compliment I can. 
AYe were most hospitably received in Mr. Hooper's elegantly 
furnished house, and here, among other fruits, had black- 
berries, the first grown in Utah Territory. After a delightful 
evening, we left this hospitable mormon house, feeling grateful 
that although Hooper was a Mormon in theory^ he, like his 
wife, was a good sound Gentile in practice. 

A SERENADE. 

Mr. Hooper's kindness did not stop here, but when the 
moonlight of early morning was silvering Salt Lake Cit3', he 
sallied out with some friends, and coming to the Townseud 
House, gave us a serenade that woke us to delicious melody. 
The strains floated soothingly on the quiet air, and the refrain, 
which I made out to be, '' With this single ring I thee wed," 
will long pleasantly linger in memory. 

ANOTHER BATHE. 

As we were to leave Salt Lake City early in the morning, 
some of us could not go without taking another sulphur bath, 
and so Messrs. Hopkins, George B. Smith, Van Slyke and my- 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 47 

self, went. One of the peculiarities of sulphur batlis is, their 
tendency to make Democrats fraternize w ith Eepublicans, and 
I form this opinion from seeing George B. Smith, Philo Dun- 
ning and J. B. Smith, Treasurer Smith's brother, and the only 
three Democrats in the party, joining hands with Eepublicans 
when in them, and gleefully dancing around. 

A BREAKFAST SWINDLE. 

"We got tolerable treatment at the Townsend House, but the 
last apology for breakfast we got there was the most barefaced 
swindle ever perpetrated in a Mormon or Gentile community, 
and I call upon Brigham Young to give old Townsend a lec- 
ture for the meanness and shiftlessness displayed in that 
breakfast The breakfast had been ordered at 3:30 a, :m:. on 
Tuesday morning, and the full price paid for it, and yet when 
we sat down to it there was only dr}' bread, brown milk-warm 
water for coffee, no milk, and but two miserable looking 
attendants, who were so distressed at making apologies for 
the breakfast that they looked like downcast criminals, on 
the verge of hanging for polygamy or some other despicable 
crime. 

I think our party, like many other Gentile parties, com- 
mitted a mistake in passing by the door of the Gentile hotel, 
which from all accounts is a good and well kept one. "We did 
so, thinking that we could see more of the Mormon system at 
Townsend's and all we saw of it is this last breakfast, enough 
to last us all for a life time. 

GOOD BYE. 

In writing good bye to Salt Lake city, I must state that 
Brigham Young complained that visitors did not keep up 
smiling when they left the city, but usually began frowning 
on Mormonism and giving it their hardest words. I am not 
surprised at the majority of American men and women acting 
thus, but if he wants people to continue smiling after visiting 
him, I can recomnfend him to such as Turks, Fejee Islanders 



48 PEOM WISCONSIN TO 

and other races who live up to the saying " of what's the odds 
so long as you're happy." 

AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT. 

I have pleasure in acknowledging the kindness and 
attention that the party received from Mr. Cannon of the 
Deseret News, and from Mr. Ball one of the attaches of the 
paper. They showed us their large and completely supplied 
printing and bookbinding establishment, from which a hand- 
somely printed and excellently conducted paper is issued 
daily, and also other literary weekly and monthly publica- 
tions ; and they also presented members of the party who 
visited them wath copies of the Mormon Bible and other 
documents. Both gentlemen are stout and good looking, and 
both have managed to prosper and keep up a decent courtesy 
to their fellow men, nowitbstanding that they each have a 
multiplicity of wives. Other Mormons, with numerous wives, 
seem to have no milk of human kindness, or any other sort, 
left for the entertainment of their fellow men, but the gentle- 
HJen named are agreeable and I trust not rare exceptions. 

The stage ride of thirty miles to and from Uintah tired us 
more than all the railroad journey to Sacramento, and when 
we got in our car at Uintah again we all felt gratefill. 

Before leaving Uintah we met Mr. Darling, formerly of Fond 
du Lac and President of the State Agricultural Society. He 
looked stout and hearty, and is, I understand, operating a for- 
warding business. 

When we came to Uintah, Messrs. lUsley and Layton of 
Milwaukee were on the train, going to San Francisco. 

I must reserve Sacramento and the trip to it, for my next 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 49 

Last Stage of the Journey — From Promontory to Sacramento — 
Magnificent Scenery of the Sacramento Valley — Wonderful 
Engineering Skill — Among the Mines — Old Friends Met and 
New Ones Found — California Fields and Orchards — A Meet- 
ing with the Chicago Commercial Party — Sacramento and 
Experiences Tlierein — Wealth and Taste — The Democrats of 
the Party Cheered Up — Generous Hospitality — A Steamboat 
Ride to San Francisco — An Affecting Reminder — At San 
Francisco — The Golden Gate. 

Sacramento, July 30, 1869. 
Leaving Promontory in tl^e evening, we ran rapidly on a 
plain showing a white crust of salt and a desert in appearance 
and quality. The eyes ranged over it and rested with some 
relief on the Sierra Nevadas, the varying outlines of which 
bounded the view. That night and next day the train ran on, 
stopping at good eating houses for meals, and when evening 
came again there was a general disposition to retire early to 
rest, so as to be up betimes in the morning to see the grand 
mountain and valley scenery that would, then characterize the 
route, instead of the level, barren-looking plain that had lined 
the track for hours. Dawn was brightening into light when 
exclamations of delight and wonder were heard proceeding 
from berths where watchful and enthusiastic expectants had 
already risen and began to feast their eyes on the first features 
of the thronged glories of the Sacramento Valley. When 
these pine trees, rocks, mountains, valleys and streams that 
now lined the track were first approached, and at what place, 
cannot be proved by me, as I, with the rest, was quietly 
sleeping, unconscious alike of barren plains and fertile valleys, 
until awoke by the expressions of admiration that rapidly 
became general throughout the car. Enough to state that it 
was about three hours before reaching Truckec, wherre we 
enjoyed an excellent breakfast between eight and nine o'clock, 
and whence the train ran through marvellous and astounding 

4 



50 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

scenery, until it. arrived at Sacramento between one and two 
o'clock. On getting up I found Mr. Fanclion and other prom- 
inent capitalists, as also Prof. Butler, of Madison, in our ear, 
who had been visiting Lake Tahoe, a noted place of resort in 
the mountains, where pleasure-seekers go to gaze into the 
deep, clear water of the lake, and catch the trout and other 
fish with which it. abounds. These gentlemen gave our party 
and Hon. Logan II. Koots, M. C. fromDe Vall's BlutV, Arkansas, 
who was also in our ear, information of the interesting points 
of the scencrv, and to them and Mr. ^LeGowan, the courteous 
conductor, we acknowledge our obligations for their valuable 
services in this respect. 

In beginning to write of the natural and artiticial wonders 
of this scenery, my pencil for the first time halts, and I feel 
the impossibility of adequately describing its grandeur and 
beauties. The train runs along the side of pine covered 
mountains, and the piles of lumber that frequently meet the 
eyes, show a valuable product, that makes the building of the 
immense snow sljcds, under which the train occasionally 
passes, of easy accomplishment, and are the source from which 
a vast section of country, bare of timber, is supplied. This 
pine, with sonic hardwood that is intci*spei"sed, forms the 
long and high trestle bridges that occasionally span canons 
and stwnms. and from which, when the train is on them. I 
look at the length beyotid, the depth below, and the valley 
seamed mount^uns, and feel puzzled which most to admire, the 
sublin\itv oi^ the engineering skill of man or the magniticence 
of nature. On the train runs, now through a deep cut in a 
rock whose grav and dark shades seem sullenly to frown on 
us, verv much like similar human fossils frown at every effort 
and advance of American spirit and progi'ess : now through a 
tunnel in a rock whose darkness seems like the benighted 
mind unable to comprehend the vim and pluck of the mar- 
vellous American enterprises that astonish the world ; now 
thundering through a long snow shed and then out in the 
sun, brightness and fivsh air of a California morning, with 
vallevs on each side of us. their pine covered sides looking 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 51 

like an ocean, as the trees sway in the wind, and tlic brown 
rocks pccpiiig out liere and tliere, as though they were breast- 
ing a tide ; past nionntain streams that greet ns with a re- 
freshing roar or a musical gentleness, according to their size, 
and whose snowy foam or glistening ripples are eagerly 
tracked down their course of black or brown rock ; past frame 
and adobe houses that at intervals are seen surrounded with 
shrubbery, flowers, fruit-laden trees, and corn and potatoe 
patches ; past quartz mills and gold washings, with their long 
lines of wooden water conductors, and then the train rounds 
what is called Cape Horn, on a high cliff embankment, and 
the greatest sight of all, dazes the' eyes and holds all thought 
and feeling in suspense. Down below us, thousands of feet, 
is a valley, and when I carefully put my head out of the car 
window, I look right into its depths. The train runs slowly 
along and all in the car are spell-bound. Those little brow^n 
spots, showing from the green, are the localities of mines; 
those brown winding tracks are the mountain paths, and those 
more regular looking patches of green are the cultivated 
places. Oh ! the vastness, the length, the breadth, the height 
of this diversified valley, with its swelling mountains standing 
like proud sentinels over a scene they loved to keep watch 
and ward over. While looking at it the mind shrinks from 
contemplating the skill that has dared to make a railroad 
track along its beetling cliffs ; and when the mountain is 
rounded that closes it from view, these leviathan works of 
nature and man are deeply and impressively fixed in memory. 
There are some curves of the track about here, but I did not 
notice that they affected the train any, although the conductor 
laughingly told me that it was said that on one occasion an 
engineer saw a light before him which he found to be the rear 
end of his own train. While running through this scenery, 
and before rounding Cape Ilorn, a glimpse of a lake was got, 
connected with which there is a melancholy story. It is 
called Conner's Lake, from the miserable perishing of 
a man by that name, with all of bis party but three, on its 
banks, during the winter of 1849. While there, a heavy 



52 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

snow fell, the cattle of tlie party straggled away and tliey were 
snowed in without provisions. In this emergency they had 
to sustain life for days by the last resort in such cases, which 
is eating the flesh of those allotted to die for the preservation 
of the rest. By this resort, when early spring came, three of 
the party were enabled to escape and tell the horrible tale, and 
the conductor told me that one of these survivors named 
Murphy, and now rich and prosperous, had a day or two ago 
ridden on his train. » 

On nearing Sacramento, grain, corn fields and vineyards 
followed in quick succession. In some of the fields the wheat 
had been harvested, and the look of them, with oak trees scat- 
tered here and there, was just like that of similar fields in Wis- 
consin in September. The grain in this section, as also in the 
other valleys visited in California, matures without irrigation, 
and as the rainy season does not begin until October, har- 
vesters have months here to do their work, instead of days, as 
in Wisconsin. Among the fruit trees, surrounding every 
house, some fig trees, bearing fruit, were conspicuous. For 
several miles the train ran through the fertile and beautiful 
scenerv formed by grain, fruit and flowers in profusion, and 
between 1 and 2 o'clock of Thursday, the 29th of July, all our 
party landed at the Sacramento depot, well and happ}^, after 
in less than two weeks, and with stopping five days on the 
road, pleasantly accomplishing a railroad journey of over 
2,000 miles. 

A MEETING. 

At one of the stations, just before reaching Sacramento, we 
met the Chicago Commercial Party, on their way home. We 
got out of our car and sang them our song, and after they had 
cheered us and we them, and had visited their refreshment 
car, the trains went their several ways, one to the distant East, 
and the other to its near goal. Such meetings on this long 
road are full of interest, and the men met on such occasions 
are not easily forgotten. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. , 53 

SACRAMENTO. 

We found Sacramento a handsomely built and substantial 
city, and to our advantage and pleasure, we met a friend there 
as will subsequently be seen. We were soon in comfortable 
quarters at the "Golden Eagle," a commodious hotel, elegantly 
built, and conducted by D. Callahan, a Pennsyjvanian who 
lived at Grafton, Wisconsin, in 1848, leaving there that year, 
and now one of the richest and most prosperous men in Sacra- 
mento. Philo Dunning had been commissioned by Mr. Briggs, 
the well known former miller of Madison, to seek out his 
brother, Alfred, living in Sacramento. This Philo success- 
fully did and appeared with Alfred Briggs, Esq., Collector of 
Internal Revenue for the Fourth District, something like Briggs 
of Madison, in the face, and a stout, merry-faced, hearty, good- 
looking man. The first thing Briggs did was to order car- 
riages to take the party about the cit}^ We started and 
enjoyed a delightful drive. We saw the new State Capitol, 
now nearly completed, and looking something like the Wis- 
consin Capitol, but no better ; we saw many large and tasteful 
residences with neat gardens full of flowers and with oleanders 
in full bloom and shrubberry with variously colored flowers 
attracting the eyes on every side. What we saw, not only 
showed wealth, but what is better, taste, and the effect of these 
two powerful agents of man's elevation was suggestively seen 
wherever we turned our eyes. You and your readers must 
imagine row after row of handsomely surrounded stone and 
brick houses, because we visited one quarter of Sacramento, 
that I judge from what I saw, you cannot so readily imagine. 
Here were Chinese of the same look and no individuality, 
performing all the operations, staidly, promptly and industri- 
ously, known to civilized life. The quaint Chinese signs and 
characters over the doors of the dealers in grocerie;', made me 
feel as though I was in the "land of flowers," but those siraple 
looking, plainly ornamented, commercial Chinese women 
sitting calmly in broad day-light at their doors, made me feel 
that hell was not fir off. The afternoon was beautiful and 
although no rain had fallen for over two months the dust on 



54 , FROM WISCONSIN TO 

the hard roads was not more noticeable than on a Wisconsin 
road after a week or two's dry weather. 

A FLOWERY OFFERING, 

As already stated, the Democrats and Republicans danced 
lovingly together on equal terms in the sulphur water pond at 
Salt Lake, but while at Sacramento, Messrs. Geo. B, Smith, 
J. B. Smith, and Philo Dunning, received an acknowlcdg- 
raeot of their politics that made them hold up their heads 
among the more numerous but less favored Republicans of 
the party. A lady of Sacramento, who, from all accounts, 
has been and is a devoted sympathizer with the Democratic 
party, hearing that there were three Democrats in the party, 
sent the representatives of the faith three bouquets of beau- 
tifal flowers, and seeing the two Smiths and Philo Dunning 
strutting around with them, and while their faces beamed with 
hopeful joy, asking the Republicans to smell, was an amusing 
and interesting sight. The Republicans did not feel in the least 
envious, but rejoiced that their Democratic friends had found 
in a strange land and when far away from Repablioan Wis- 
consin, something to raise their hearts that year after year of 
succeeding defeat, must have somewhat bowed down. 

ANOTHER FRIEND. 

The party found another friend here in Mr. Drew a flourish- 
ing lumber merchant of the place, w^ho has a brother in Osh- 
kosh in the lumbering business, and friends and relatives 
elsewhere in Wisconsin. He gave the party a magnificent 
entertainmeni at his house ; accompanied us to the boat and 
when bidding us good bye, presented us with a large box of 
grapes, peaches, pears, apricots and plums, which we enjoyed 
going down the Sacramento. 

After dinner on Friday afternoon, the party sung their 
excursion song at the "Golden Eagle," and then in carriages 
provided by Mr. Briggs, we went to the wharf, from which the 
steamer Yosemite was about sailing for San Francisco. Three 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 65 

rousing clieers for Briggs and Drew, and then the steamer 
quickly bore us down the Sacramento. 

Captain Poole, of the steamer, was one of the genial, pleas- 
ant, gentlemanly steam-boat captains that you read of, and I 
believe, meet with more, on rivers and lakes in the United 
States than anywhere else in the world. He treated us very 
courteously, and at 5 o'clock we sat down in an elegant cabin 
to a complete dinner, prepared by Steward Atkinson, whose 
reputation as an unexcelled caterer is known on more than one 
river in California and other States. I noticed that the water 
of the Sacramento river was very brown, and on asking Cap- 
tain Poole the reason, he told me that when he first sailed on 
it, twenty years ago, it was clear as the purest water, but that 
the sandy washings of the gold mines, all running into it, had 
given it its present color. At several points down the river, 
the steamer stopped and took on board quantities of the large 
and very fine salmon that the fishermen catch here. I saw a 
big pile of these mammoth and handsome looking fish on the 
forward deck, and was told that such a pile could be seen on 
the boat throughout the year on every one of its trips. 

AN AFFECTING REMINDER. 

After dinner we gathered in the cabin, sung our song and 
some of us made remarks, in which we jubilated on the 
pleasant and comfortable trip made across the Continent. As 
we did this, an old man t>tood near and he was observed to be 
intently listening, while tears filled his eyes. At the close of 
the remarks, he came to me and said : " Oh ! sir, I cannot tell 
you how this makes me feel. When I was coming here years 
ago, I had to toil for months and when I got here a bag of gold 
dust would barely get^me a loaf bread ; and now, seeing all 
yon men feeling so happy and cheerful after a comfortable trip 
from the States of only six days, so reminds- me of the long 
tedious trip, and the slow days of twenty years ago, that I 
cannot keep the tears from my eyes." He told me that he 
came from Ehode Island and that he now owned fifteen 
hundred acres of the best land between Sacramento and San 



56 FROM "U'lSCONSIN TO 

Francisco. He showed me some of his lately harvested crop 
of wheat, the ears of whicli were nearly half a foot long and 
the berry very plump and good. He said that when he got his 
hay bundled, he was going to make a trip overland to the 
States and from what others have told me, besides this man, I 
judge that thousands, during the present fall, will do likewise. 
In this connection, I may remark that all Califoriiians, in 
speaking of the Eastern countr}', say " the States,'" seemingly 
forgetting that their country is one of them, and not the least 
either. Now that they are connected with the East by rail 
they will probably let this term, which originated in the long 
sea vovages, made in getting to the States, quietly drop. 

AT SAX FRAXCISCO. 

After a pleasant sail of over 100 miles down the Sacramento, 
the banks of which showed plenty of fertility and careful cul- 
tivation, and the surrounding view, mountains towering in 
the distance in various shapes and shades, the steamer neared 
the bay at the entrance of which stands the celebrated 
" Golden Gate," formed by a fort on one side and an island of 
huge rocks on the other, and through whicli comes the blue 
water of the Pacific. But darkness came on before the 
steamer reached here, and only rock bound islands and the 
outlines of a sharply defined coast could be seen looming 
through the night But we were compensated for the lack of 
daylight, by making the port of San Fmncisco, when it lay 
before us with its low and high streets brilliant with gas-light, 
and looking in the still night and beside the smooth water, 
reflecting its light, like a fairy creation of beauty, instead of 
the work of men's hands, who, twent}- years ago, had only 
begun to smooth the sandy places and had not even contem- 
plated a wharf in the water, on which now nearly half the 
city has advanced. 

Landing, and rushing through the Babel noise of the wharf 
to our carriages, we were soon comfortably settled at the Occi- 
dental Hotel, from which I finish tljis letter, and where I will 
date mv next 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 57 

A Visit to the Golden Gate — Among Moiuy Kings of Cali- 
fornia — At the Journeys End — Meeting ivith Many Old 
Friends — Wisconsiners on the Pacific Coast — Whole Soided 
Courtesies — A Pacific Sail — Tlie Chinese in their Quarters — 
California Officials and Institutions — Trip to Oakland^ San 
Jose, Xew Almaden Quid-silver Mines, Menlo and other 
Places — California Gold Kings ayid their Palatial Residences — 
How Fortunes have been Acquired. 

San Francisco, Aug. 3, 1869. 

Well, here we are in San Francisco, where the party have 
been for the past two or three days, chatting with former 
residents of Wisconsin, now settled here ; receiving civilities 
from many of the prominent gold kings, and- looking with 
wonder, and frequently with admiration, on the natural and 
acquired advantages of this fast metropolis of the Pacific 
slope. 

When we arrived at the Occidental, the following telegram 
just received from Postmaster E. W. Keyes, and dated Madi- 
son, July 30th, was handed to Mr. Hopkins and read : 

"Your dispatch received. All well. Everything quiet on the Catfish. Wheat and 

corn active. Compliments to the crowd. Don't ti-ead on pig-tails, and look out for 

grizzlies. 

"E. W. KEYES." 

• OLD FRIENDS. 

Amono- the first to street us in San Francisco, were Prof. 
Carr, General Ruggles and Ash. Vilas, all formerly of Madi- 
son. Prof Carr is now connected with the State University of 
California, where he conducts a similar department to that in 
which he officiated for years at the University of Wisconsin. 
General Eiiggles looks about the same as he did years ago, 
when his smiling face could frequently be seen on the streets 
of Madison, and in the office of the Secretary of State. He is 
now in the Recorder's office here, and, as his wife has left 
Wisconsin and joined him, he has nothing more to wish for 
on this earth to make him happy and prosperous. Mr. Vilas 



58 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

is making arrangements to conduct a commission business, 
and, as liis "wife has lately left San }<Vancisco on a visit to her 
relatives in Wisconsin, he is, of course, not so happy as he 
might be, and as he will be, when she again returns. I have 
met Mrs. Carr, and she expresses herself as delighted v/ith her 
new home, and is enjoying to the full the bays, the valleys 
and the mountains adjacent to San Fraacisco. I also met Mrs. 
Higbee, formerly Lisle Lester, of the Richland county, Wis- 
consin, Sentinel. She introduced me to Miss Alexander, a 
popular actress in lively pieces, who is staying with her, and 
who has the enviable notoriety, for an actress, of having per- 
formed for five years in the theatre at Salt Lake City, during 
which time she lived in Brigham Young's family, but from 
what she told me, not in the capacity of one of his numerous 
temporal or spiritual or sealed wives. She is an interesting 
looking young lady, with a pale, thin face, whose regular fea- 
tures are rendered very expressive whenever her dark eyes 
flash, which they always do when she refers to Mormonism. 
Her body is slim, but when she spoke of Brigham and his 
institution, it seemed to look as strong as a much heavier and 
fleshier body, and while hearing her and looking at her, I 
amusingly thought how funny it would be to see Brigham 
endeavoring to break a dozen such women, or even one of 
them, into his spiritual philosophy and temporal practice. W. 
T. Atwood, Esq., formerly well known in Madison, as a lively 
and promising boy, and a nephew of General Atwood of the 
Journal^ is now prosperously settled here as a successful 
operator in copper and other ores. He has an elegantly fur- 
nished oflfice, to which the Wisconsin visitors frequently repair, 
and where they are always cordially welcomed by a gentle- 
man whose genial courtesies are daily many and various to 
every member of the party. 

Captain Huggins, well known in Madison years ago, when 
he was in the office of the Secretary of State, also greeted us at 
San Francisco. With all his wanderings and services on 
United States and Mexican war vessels, he ages but little, and 
looks about as he did ten years ago. This, considering that 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 59 

he is yet a bachelor, excites the wonder of more than the 
writer. 

COURTESIES. 

The party, on first entering the city, were the recipients of 
courtesies that are pleasantly continued from day to day. The 
Librarian of the Merchants' Library Association presented us 
with tickets admitting us at will to the choicely stocked 
rooms, and other gentlemen in military, literary and commer- 
cial life have handsomely contributed to our pleasant and 
profitable entertainment. Gen. Ord invited us to take a trip 
on the steamer McPherson, and one afternoon we got on the 
steamer, aiid in company with several military officers, ladies 
and gentlemen of San Francisco, sailed out into the bay, 
visiting Fort Alcastra and a military station on an island, and 
steaming close to several other islands, and the celebrated 
*' Grolden Gate." At the fort we saw a tasteful and refreshing 
sight in a flower garden, with neatly laid out walks at the 
summit of the height, that we reached by a series of steep 
paths, taking us higher and higher, past heavy guns and em- 
brasures, until we reached this garden gem of peace and 
beauty, cheeringly surmounting the top of "grim visaged 
war." There was a fresh breeze, as there always is here 
during the afternoon, and when nearing the Golden Gate, 
where the swell of the Pacific ocean was felt, the steamer got 
a lively motion, that appeared to be generally appre- 
ciated by our party ; although one or two of them were 
evidently on their guard against an attack from sea sickness- 
When we first sighted the Pacific, looking vast and blue, 
through the narrow width of the Golden Gate, Dan Tenney 
stationed himself at the bow and under the inspiration of the 
scene, indulged in a rousing song, as he usually does when 
affected by the great sights of nature or the triumphs of art. 
And he is not the only one who does this, but several of us 
do it more or less in this exhilirating atmosphere, when sur- 
rounded by such impressive scenes, and thus find a pleasant 
vent for our excited feelings. After seeing all of interest in 



60 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

San Francisco bay ; not the least attractive objects to us being 
the French and American war steamers Asirea and Pensacola, 
and the fleet of other war vessels and ships of commerce of 
all sizes, from every part of the world ; we were landed and 
escorted by the military officers who had so handsomely enter- 
tained us, to our hotel. 

Next day Mr. Greene and others, on the invitation of 
Lieutenant Kennedy, a Jefferson county acquaintance of Mr. 
Greene's, visited the Pensacola, and enjoyed a pleasant and 
suggestive inspection. 

VISIT TO OAKLAND. 

The party enjoyed a very pleasant visit to Oakland, a 
flourishing and promising place across the bay from San Fran- 
cisco, where they were choicely entertained by Colonel La 
Grange and other residents. Colonel La Grange will be 
known to you and many of your readers as a former resident 
of Ripon, "Wisconsin, and as the gallant Colonel of the 1st 
Wisconsin regiment of cavalry. He is now Superintendent 
of the mint at California, and is generally respected as an able 
official and superior man. I was prevented by another en- 
gagement from accompanying the party to Oakland, and 
therefore take the following account of the visit from one of 
the daily papers published at that place : 

" The "Wisconsin excursion party paid a visit to Oakland 
yesterday, arriving on the noon train, and were received by 
Gen. La Grange, their host, and a number of the leading 
citizens of Oakland, among whom were Col. A. J. Coffee, Col. 
J. C. Hayes, Dr. Pendleton, D. L. Emerson, J. Clark, and 
members of the Press. They visited the college buildings, 
and walked through the town admiring its many beauties, 
after which they proceeded to the residence of Gen. La Grange. 
After spending a brief season in social chat, the company sat 
down to a bounteous collation, at which wine flowed plenti- 
fully, and wit was as sparkling as the wine. Congressman 
Hopkins toasted Gen. La Grange and ladv. Gen. La Grange, 
he said, was an old resident of "Wisconsin, and the party 



I 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 61 



present, representing the people of that State, could bear 
witness to his worth, and the estimation in which he was held 
in his old home. They had watched his course from bojhood, 
and when he, a young man, gave his services to his country, 
in suppressing a powerful rebellion that threatened the life of 
the nation, they were proud of his gallant career, and the 
pride was participated in by all the people of the State which 
claimed him as its son. Wisconsin was proud of him, and 
could congratulate California upon the acquisition of so good 
a citizen and so noble a man. Those who had known him in 
his old home, were happy to meet him on the shores of the 
distant Pacific, and pleased to see him settled in so beautiful a 
locality, and surrounded by all that was calculated to make 
life pleasant. 

"At the conclusion of Congressman Hopkins' remarks, the 
entire company applauded the sentiments uttered, with great 
enthusiasm. 

" A toast to the Wisconsin delegation, called forth a 
humorous response from Col. Charles R. Gill, Attorney Gen- 
eral, between whom and George B. Smith, who responded for 
California, a lively season of repartee ensued, to the infinite 
amusement of all present. The delegation then sang their 
excursion song, Mr. Tenney leading, and the balance of the 
party coming in strong at the chorus. 

" After these pleasures had ended, the part}^ were taken in 
carriages through the city, and shown the many attractive 
features of the place. They expressed themselves delighted 
with Oakland, and were enthusiastic in their praise of its 
attractiveness. Our beautiful oaks and shady avenues were 
particularly admired." 

THE CHINESE. 

We visited the Chinese quarters where we saw the busy 
celestials in their haunts of pleasure and commerce. The 
streets were full of them and the sameness of the expression 
of their faces was constantly noticed. The most interesting 
visit was made to the wholesale store of Fung Tang, an edu- 



62 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

cated and polislied Chinaman who talks and writes English 
very perfectly. He received ns very pleasantly and aii we sat 
in his store refreshed ns with cigars and excellent black tea, 
served in small cups. In answer to questions, he said that 
his countrymen wished to become citizens of the United 
States, and that the sending of the remains of dead Chinese to 
be buried in China, was only a custon that the habits and cir- 
cumstances of a residence in this country, would in time, render 
less common. He inquired particularly about the quantity of 
Ginseng raised in Wisconsin and the price at which it sells, 
and said he wanted to buy all he could get. This shows a 
chance for trade and those in Wisconsin having Ginseng for 
sale can find a prompt purchaser in Fung Tang of San Fran- 
cisco. "We also vLsitcd the Chinese Theatre, and saw a 
remarkable performance, which continued a play that had 
then been exhibiting for three or four nights. The chief 
points of the play seemed to consist in half dressed men 
with diabolically painted faces who twisted and swayed their 
bodies about for some minutes at a time to each other, and to a 
Chinese woman looking and holding her hands like the 
women figures occasionally seen on tea chests. She had 
long black hair, which, as she ran around with the men on 
the stage, and when kneeling on it, apparently under strong 
emotion, she shook c^ut very gracefully at full length, fre- 
quently dashing it on the stage, as though it were the lash of 
a whip. She seemed to be in a constant blush, which was 
evidently not owing to the singular liberties the men took 
with her, but to a thick coat of red paint. The shrill sounds 
of the Chinese orchestra were frequently interspersed with 
heavy gong stops, that prevented the squeaking voices of the 
actors and every other sound from being heard. The stage 
scenery was a Chinese house front, and when the actors rushed 
and tumbled about the most and the woman energetically 
shook her head and swung her hair around, the applause of 
the Chinese spectators reached its height Seeing the Chinese 
placidly and quietly conducting their business in their stores ; 
seeing them busy ironing linen and skillfully squirting water 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 63 

over it, from their mouths ; seeing them active and steady in 
all the occupations of civihzed life, and then seeing them in 
their gambling haunts, playing as steadily and methodically 
as they work, affords an interesting sight, that the present agi- 
tation on Chinese immigration, makes very suggestive. We 
owed our visit to Fung Tang and much of what we saw of the 
Chinese, to the courtesy of Ex-Grovernor Burnett, the first 
Governor of the State, and now one of its most conscientious 
and respected citizens. 

OTHER VISITS. 

One day, the party visited Governor Haight, and were intro- 
duced to him and the Lieutenant Governor. They at present 
occupy plainly furnised rooms in San Francisco. 

The California Bank is the institution of California, and by 
the invitation of Mr. Ealston, the cashier and also one of its 
chief managers, the paty visited there and saw bars of silver 
and gold, the former of the value of from $1,400 to $3,000, 
and the latter averaging $3,(»00. They also saw forty boxes 
of Mexican silver dollars, prepared for shipment to Europe to 
accommodate the present cumbersome system of exchange 
prevailing there and elsewhere in this, with regard to currency, 
half-civilized world. 

We also visited the refining establishment connected with 
the bank, and where the surprising economy of chemistry is 
seen to its fullest extent. 

Near this establishment is another, where sulphuric and 
nitrate acids, essential in the development and refinement of 
gold and silver, are produced. 

We next went to the Mission Woolen Mills, and saw here a 
very gratifying sight, in the wool, the extensive machinery and 
fine blankets and cloths. The operatives are Chinese, and the 
excellence of their skill and labor enables these mills to com- 
pete, in all respects, with any others in the world. 

VISIT TO SAN JOSE. 

This place, pronounced San Hosa, is about sixty or seventy 



64 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

miles southeast of San Francisco, and we went on a special 
train, provided for us by Mr. Ralston, to Santa Clara, where we 
found carriages, sent by Mr. Ralston, in waiting to take us, 
the drive of three miles to San Jose. In passing through Santa 
Clara, we went through the plantation of Mr. Pierce, and there 
the carriages stopped while we went into a magnificent orchard 
and patch of sweet strawberries, where we helped ourselves to 
that fruit and to the ripe and luscious peaches that surrounded 
us on every side. This was a feast worth enjoying, and all 
felt on getting again into the carriages that the pleasures of it 
could not easily be forgotten. We were accompanied to San 
Jose by Ex-Senator Gary of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and well 
known to many gallant Badgers as the effective Surgeon of 
the 12th Regiment. He has been living here for some months 
past for the benefit of his health, which, I judge from his im- 
proved appearance, he has completely recovered. The ride to 
San Jose was very pleasant, the main road being hard and 
smooth as an English post road and lined with graceful and 
venerable looking Sycamore trees, said to have been planted 
by the first missionaries over one hundred years ago. The 
fine residences and cottages surrounded with trees and neat 
flower beds that were frequent on both sides of the road, gave 
the whole scene a neat look that was very attractive and sug- 
gestive of an old and richly settled country. Near at hand, the 
bright brown of wheat fields varied the scene while the more 
distant, mountains and valleys ranging on every side in the 
distance supplied every needed incentive to fancy or remem- 
brance. We got good accommodations at a first class hotel, 
and before going to bed a number of the citizens accompanied 
by a band came and serenaded us, for which the thanks of the 
party were returned by Messrs. G. B. Smith, Hopkins, Gill 
and the writer. San Jose is a handsome looking and spirited 
place, having a high and impressive looking stone court house, 
several convents ; other substantially built public edifices and 
two daily newspapers. The hotel we stopped at was in all 
respects metropolitan. 



I 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 65 



THE ALMADEN MINE. 



The object of our visit to San Jose, was to start from there 
to the Almaden quick-silver mine, distant in the mountains 
from San Jose, fourteen miles. In the morning, carriages also 
supplied by the gold king Ralston, were in waiting to convey 
us to the mine, and the party started for there accompanied 
by Mr. White, Mr. Ralston's agent, and by Mr, Cargill an 
English M. P., and one of the managers of the Oriental bank 
now being established at Japan. The road was beautiful 
but dusty, and on arriving at the base of the mountain up 
which we had to ascend, we stopped at a spring of Yichy 
watei^ bottled for use in other and distant places, and 
quenched our thirst. The taste of the water is somewhat like 
that of Soda, and its qualities are highly medicinal. The 
horses then began to slowly ascend the mountain, and in 
going up, we enjoyed some grand views. One of them that 
we saw, when nearly at the top, was very grand and inspiring. 
It was of a vast valle}^, brown with wheat fields and dotted 
with evergreens, and laying like a scene of peace and hope, 
between overhanging mountains. While looking at it, bright 
in the sun-light, and breathing the pure air, a man felt near to 
his Maker and better fitted to approach His holy presence. At 
last we got to the mine, and saw the carmine-colored quartz, 
that was being constantly brought into the light from the 
depth of 500 feet below the tunnel shaft. Many of the spec- 
imens, picked at hazard from the heaps, showed eighty per 
cent, of quicksilver, represented in the quarts, by the carmine 
color. We walked a long way in the tunnel, warm and damp, 
and bored three hundred feet below the summit of the moun- 
tain, until we came to the shaft, down which the miners went 
for 500 feet, and up which they sent the buckets of quartz 
that an engine was hauling, and which was being carted away 
in trucks on a railroad track. As we walked in the tunnel, 
and the men passed us, they looked worn and cadaverous by 
the flickering light of the candles. One of the managers, the 
day previous to our visit, had come up in the bucket from 

5 



66 FROM WISCONSLN- TO 

below with Anna Dickinson, wlio went through all the work- 
ings of the mine. When in the open air again, I noticed an 
affecting sight, in a fence surrounding a grave at the top of 
one of the highest mountains, likely that of some miner, who, 
after laboring in life in the darkness of the bowels of the 
earth, had left his remains in a bright and free place, always 
reached by sun and wind. On descending to the plain again, 
we visited the building where the quartz, brought from the 
mountain on a railroad track, is smelted and the pure quick- 
silver is seen running into iron pans. The ride back to the 
hotel was a very dusty one, and after brushing off and dining, 
we went some miles on the raih'oad towards San Francisco, 
to Menlo, where Messrs. Ralston, Hay ward and other fgold 
kings were waiting with carriages to receive us. We then vis- 
ited the houses and plantations of Messrs. Atherton, Selby 
and other gentlemen, and saw sights that made us think that 
the extravagant descriptions of gardens in the Arabian Night's 
Entertainments were not much, if any overdrawn. Around 
us were trees, plants and shrubbery of all varieties, loaded 
down with fruits and flowers. Apples, pears, plums, tpricots 
peaches, figs, quinces, all kinds of berries and other fruits 
were on every side of us in luxuriant profusion. Limbs of 
apple trees, were so thickly clustered with large, luscious, 
fruit, that even the crotch of the tree was invaded and rosy 
cheeked apples, apparently disputing for possession, were seen 
wedged in there. As you walked along, monstrous specimens 
of different kinds of fruit came in contact with your head or 
nose at almost every step, and enormously sized black-berries 
plentifully streaked the green bushes with glossy black. See- 
ing all this fruit ripe at once, and eating of it to repletion, 
was very like being in a fairy land, but this feeling was 
increased by the sight of the fountains, flower beds and fish 
ponds in the center of the plantations, and fronting the resi- 
dences of the proprietors. The pure cold water rising so 
forcibly in the air from the artistically designed spouts and 
descending so refreshingly around in graceful showers has 
been conveyed from the mountains at an immense cost, which 



CALIFORNIA AN'D RETURN. 67 

■^as jointly borne by the several proprietors, and they now 
each pay $50 per month for keeping the machinery going. 
This water supply is not only essential for ornament but for 
the successful raising of the prodigious fruit crop. On one of 
the plantations a man threw raw meat and strawberries into 
the pond and trout j umped to the surface and got them. Here 
also was a park in which tame antelopes, young and old, were 
seen running and bounding among the trees and bushes. The 
residences of the hospitable proprietors, whether they were at 
home or absent, seemed open to their friends, who entered 
their magnificent drawing and refreshment rooms and made 
themselves and the company as much at home as though thev 
were the regular entertainers, ^r. Selby conducted us to his 
own grounds, where we saw a very complete stable, capable 
of conveniently accommodating forty horses, and also two or 
three trees of the famous Yosemite variety. They were yet 
young, but thrifty, and Mr. Selby was watching their growth 
with intense interest, in the hope of discovering that they 
would be mammoths like the originals. Their appearance is 
like that of the cedar tree. After receiving an elegant hos- 
pitality, part of the company drove with Mr. Ealston to his 
house and the rest went the distance of seven miles from Mr, 
Selby's by special train. Mr. Ealston's house is palatial in 
appearance, finish and accommodation, and when entertaining 
his friends he can give over sixty of them separate sleeping- 
rooms. Before dinner, the company promenaded in the draw- 
ing room and in the commodious dancing hall, the floor of 
which was of alternate strips of walnut and laurel wood, 
which looked very tasteful When the guests were seated at 
the long table in the magnificent dining hall, a band gave 
sweet music which was continued during the sumptuous repast. 
When the numerous courses had been done full justice to, 
Hon. B. F. Hopkins arose and in a few remarks expressed the 
thanks of the company for the considerate attention and cour- 
tesy bestowed on them by Mr. Ralston while in California, 
One of Mr. Ealston's friends then stated that he knew that the 
host was a modest man, and to save his feelings from what 



68 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

mio-ht be uttered in speeches, he moved an adjournment, 
which the host cordially and laughingly seconded, and the 
company adjourned to the drawing room, 

Mr. Hayward, another gold king, then drove us a short dis- 
tance to his residence, and on entering his grounds we found 
them light as day with gas lamps, and the fountains playing 
with very beautiful effect. He tirst conducted us to his 
stable, the stalls of which were of walnut wood, with gilt 
mouldings, and the floor of alternate strips of laurel and 
walnut wood. The harness room was neat and tasteful, and 
mirrors were not only there, but on several of the panels of 
the stable. Between thirty and forty horses could be 
elegantly accommodated here, and a span of gray and another 
of bay horses that were brought on the floor, showed the 
excellence of the stock, as they were horses, in appearance 
and quality, that at once put Greene and the other horsemen of 
the company, in ecstacies. As Hayward was formerly a Wis- 
consin man, having left Jefferson county for the land of gold, 
the company resolved to sing him their excursion song, and so 
they gathered round him and gave it with a will. Mr. Greene 
stayed all night with his hospitable Jefferson county friend, 
and in the morning enjoyed such a five mile drive, behind 
Hayward's fast horses as he will always appreciate and never 
forget. The balance of the company went by special train to 
San Francisco, and during the short trip sang their excursion 
song in honor of Mr. Crocker, the energetic Superintendent of 
the Central Pacific road, who during the delightful afternoon 
and evening, by his pleasant manners and courtesy, bad greatly 
contributed to our enjoyment. With the wonderful sight-see- 
iog of the past day or two fresh in our overloaded minds, we 
went straight to our beds at the Occidental, where probably 
most of us again enjoyed in dreams the wonderful fertility 
and richness of the land of gold. 

THE GOLD KINGS. 

I made it my business to learn something of the history of 
two of the prominent gold kings, EaLston and Hayward. 



CALIFOENIA AND RETURN". 69 

Their history shows the usual course to honorable wealth, 
which is always marked by perseverance, confidence, pluck, 
and untiring industry. Mr. Ealston is yet a young looking 
man, and began his business career as clerk of a Mississippi 
steamboat. He then became connected with a banking estab- 
lishment in California, and by his energy and sagacity worked 
himself to the front rank of the business enterprises that he 
now occupies. In person he is a lithe, middle sized man, with 
a pleasant looking face, and the sharp, quick habit of the 
business man, which, however, in his case, easily gives way 
to the promptings of a courtesy that when occasion and cir- 
cumstances require, is never wanting. 

Mr. Hayward left Jefferson county, Wisconsin, years ago, 
with no other fortune than that afforded him by a year or 
two's education in a log school house on the bank of Bark 
river, and a number of such sterling qualities as resolution, 
self respect and an indomitable will. He went to the mines 
of California and worked for several years with only the com- 
mon success of the ordinary miner. No big lead led him to 
immediate affluence, and he might have gone to gambling and 
to desperation as many other unsuccessful miners went, only 
for the writing book words of " Learn to labor and to wait," 
that held him steadfast to himself and correct principles 
through many a trying ordeal of hard living and temptation. 
At length his lucky moment came ; his glittering goal was 
reached and one of the richest mines of California lay at his 
feet. With riches accumulating around him, he remained the 
same steady, laborious man, as when poor and struggling, and 
now when on one of the highest pinnacles of substantial 
wealth, he steadily continues business as a banker and luxu- 
riates in his natural taste for a comfortable home and good 
horses. In person he is tall, moderately stout, and his face, 
with auburn whiskers, is always lighted with a warm expres- 
sion of kindness, and by blue eyes that mirror geniality and 
good feeling. The history of the career of these gold kings is 
suggestive, and I give it so that the company who enjoyed 
their lavish hospitality, may more particularly remember them. 



70 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

and that all may learn the secret of the success that it so 
emphatically teaches. 

But I must on with the incidents of the trip, and will give 
more of them in my next 



Last Days and Scenes on the Pacific Coast — Homeward Journey 
— The Sights of San Francisco — A World in Minature — A 
Firemen's Reception — The Badgers kindly taken in — A surfeit 
of Fruits — Hard earned Gold — Wheat Kings — Another 
Pleasant Tarry at Sacramento — On the Pullman Car Wasatch 
Return Songs. 

San FrA-NCISCO, August 6, 1869. 
We are on the eve of leaving this luxurious city and the 
gay streets that we have looked up and down during our stay, 
with such admiring interest, will soon be far behind us ; but 
they and the many objects of attraction and beauty that we 
have seen, will not easily be forgotten. We have driven out 
to the Cliff House and seen the huge and slimy seals basking 
on the rocks near the Golden Gate ; we have visited Wood- 
ward's gardens, on the invitation of the proprietor, and seen 
the white bear and the other curiosities ; we have inspected 
museums rich in treasures of painting and sculpture ; we have 
been to the churches and heard in magnificent edifices sound 
and aflectmg sermons and entrancing music and singing; we 
have looked into the saloons gaudy with paintings and orna- 
ments, and seen some drink the costly imported wines and 
liquors that it is only fashionable to call for here at twenty-five 
cents per glass, while others refreshed themselves at the lunch 
tables that are constantly covered with cold salmon and meats ; 
we have walked up the steep streets lined with substantial 
stone and brick buildings, and noticed the iron bars with 
which some of them are braced in contemplation of another 
earthquake visit; also the conspicuous sign of the North- 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 71 

western Mutual Life Insurance Company, reminding us of a 
home institution ; also the business bustle by day and the 
music and stir at night, when reckless life riots and runs ram- 
pant ; also the many newspaper and printing offices that the 
city can boast of; also the men and women from all parts of the 
world who proudly, staidly, dejectedly, hastily or thoughtlessly 
pass on the sidewalks by day or loiter on them in reduced 
crowds at night ; also the Chinese and other curiosity shops 
where some of the party got ingenious ornaments and trinkets 
for the pleasure of their wives and families, and in short, have 
feasted our eyes with the worthy and enterprising sights of 
one of the most flourishing cities of the Union and filled our 
minds with more food for thought than can be profitably 
digested in a life time. 

A GRAND DISPLAY. 

As I write, the street in front of the Occidental shows a 
grand display, and the air is rent with the piercing shrieks of 
twenty-five engines. This animated pageant is the welcoming 
reception to Chief Engineer Whitney, who has been East for 
six months. The music of successive bands soothingly min- 
gles with the surrounding clamor, each heading fire and other 
organizations, the men and horses of which step proudly along. 
All the engines are so covered with flowers that their bright 
brass and steel are only barely seen, and the teams drawing 
them are gay with flags. Last but not least of the procession, 
comes the Good Templars, mounted marshals and a full band 
leading the long array of steady looking men, whose tem- 
perance flags and emblems, boldly held aloft, at every twenty 
feet or so, flaunt in the lights from both sides of the street of 
magnificent saloons doing a rousing and prosperous business. 

I must not omit to mention that many private and unex- 
pected courtesies were received by members of the party, 
which showed the good will of all classes of Californians 
towards Badgers. As a party of three of them were one after- 
noon riding to the Cliflf House, a gentleman living in an elegant 
house accosted them and finding that they were some of the 



72 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

Wisconsin visitors, invited them in, introduced' them to his 
family, set luscious fruits and other refreshments before them, 
lent them his glass to look out on the Pacific, and gave them 
such a treat of genuine sociality as they will never cease to he 
grateful for. This, as a sample of considerate California hos- 
pitality and of which several such samples can be given from 
the experiences of the party. 

"While here, the residents of San Francisco told us that they 
were enduring their winter season. This seemed strange to us, 
seeing, as we did, constant dry weather, sunshiny days and 
with only occasional mornings and evenings damp and chilly. 
There was also plenfy of green in the irrigated places, but the 
Galifornians only casually noticed these, so intent were they on 
looking forward to the copious rains of November and Decem- 
ber when the brown looking valleys and hills would become 
clothed in rich, green verdure and the sometimes harsh wind 
would be succeeded by balmy breezes. 

Fruits of all kinds were so plentiful that I think all the party 
after three or four days became satiated with them. At 
breakfast luscious cantelopes were served ; at lunch at 12 
o'clock, peaches, apricots, plums, apples, pears, grapes and 
melons were on the table, and also at dinner, at 5 o'clock with 
the addition of strawberries, and again at supper from 9 until 
12 o'clock. Eipe grapes of various choice varieties could be 
got for ten cents per pound and for much less at wholesale, and 
I found that ten cents invested in either apples, pears, grapes, 
peaches, apricots, plums or melons, got more of the fruit than 
one voracious fancier could comfortably dispose of at a time. 
But taking everything all round a man can live no cheaper or 
better in California on silver and gold than he can here on 
greenbacks, and the poor man cannot live so cheaply ; although 
the large and choicely stocked markets of San Francisco afford 
a variety and profusion of flesh, fish, fowl, fruits and vege- 
tables equal to the best and most favored of the Metropolitan 
cities of the world. 

All that the earth affords in California is plentiful and cheap, 
but I must except gold and silver from the category, which 



CALIFORNIA AND EETURN. 73 

from all accounts and observation are the dearest of the 
resources, as good and general authority states that every 
gold dollar issued, costs $1,25 in specie. This fact leads me 
to wonder at so many thousands of men being content to 
pass laborious years in dark mines in the earth's bowels; 
when everything required for their necessity and comfort can 
be so much more easily and pleasantly got on the earth's sur- 
face. Much of this hardly earned metal goes to the wine pro- 
ducers of France and other countries who get rich and fat 
while working in pleasant vineyards ; to the plethoric brewers 
of the fine ales of Great Britain and Ireland, who luxuriously 
enjoy life on the earth's surface ; into the United State's Trea- 
sury in payment of the heavy duty on imported wines and 
liquors, and into the vaults and safes that a fastidious system of 
commerce peremptorily insists shall be kept constantly filled 
with idle coin, so that all kinds of barter in every production 
of man's skill and ingenuity may be managed and balanced 
through this comparatively useless agent. 

Before leaving San Francisco, I met Mr. Sharpstein, a well 
known lawyer and politician, formerly of Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin, and Mr. Hyam, a young man from Fitchburg, Dane 
county, who now is prospering here. Others of the party also 
met Mr. James, a prominent lawyer, formerly of Wisconsin. 

As most of the company had made arrangements to be in 
Wisc(msin again within a month, the contemplated visits to 
the Yosemite Yalley and some other noted resorts had to be 
abandoned ; but General Allen arranged to visit his sisters at 
Stockton ; Dr. Treat to visit friends at Marysville ; Messrs. 
Sawyer, Smith, Hay and Moseley to visit the Geyser's and the 
company generally to rendezvous at Sacramento on the 7th of 
August, and leave for home on the morning of the 8th. 

THE RETURN. 

On the morning of the 7th, the company in San Francisco 
left by the steamer for Vallejo, thirty miles down the bay> 
when they took the train for Sacramento. Vallejo has not 
only the appearance of a sea port, but every advantage to 



74 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

make it a flourishing one. We saw the first elevator seen in 
California here, and heard that it would be used in shipping 
the products of the adjacent rich wheat fields to New York 
and Liverpool. 

A WHEAT KING. 

I have described some gold kings and I must now write a 
little about a wheat king. Living near Sacramento, is Mr. 
Green, who nearly twenty years ago left Kenosha, "Wisconsin, 
to farm in California. He was over four months crossing the 
plains and making the trip, and he and his wife now went 
from Sacramento to Chicago on the same train with us in less 
than six days. He is a hale and hearty looking man, now 
wealthy and prosperous and he told me that his last crop of 
wheat weighed seventy tons, while his other grain and fruit 
crops were equally heavy. 

On arriving at Sacramento, the place looked lively with 
women and children, looking through smoked glass at the 
eclipse, and we had not been long at the Golden Eagle before 
the friendly Briggs and Drew again put in an appearance and 
began to- make us happy. On the hotel counter stood a neatly 
painted keg, filled with the production of one of California's 
choicest vineyards, and significantly labelled as follows, in 
gold gilt letters : 

CALIFORNIA'S GREETING 

TO 

WISCONSIN. 

" AULD lANG STNE." 

A. BRIGGS. 

1869. 

We spent the evening in riding in carriages furnished by 
the hospitable Briggs, and after a pleasant session in our parlor 
with those lights of Sacramento, Briggs and Drew, retired 
early to rest. 

Gen. Allen and the party visiting the Geyser's joined us 
here and the last had much to tell of what they saw and heard 
at the hot springs. They enjoyed a very picturesque ride to 
the Geysers ; when there got good accommodation ; saw plenty 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 75 

of smoke, boiling water and black craters and came back 
bringing a bottle of the water that could be "ased as ink for 
"writing. During their stay at the Geysers, they enjoyed a 
dance and found the ladies present, who were there for their 
health, very sociable and well informed. 

At Sacramento I met a Mr. Bennet, formerly a printer in 
the Journal office ; more lately a soldier in the Union army, 
and now an obliging acting conductor on the Central Pacific 
road. 

THE START. 

A little after 6 o'clock in the morning, we entered the 
Pullman car "Wasatch," bound for home. This car made 
one through trip from Sacramento to New York, and had 
arrived the previous day from New York city on the return 
trip. But we found her all ready and in good order to run 
several thousand miles more. 

Briggs and Drew stuck to us until the last, and after 
warmly grasping their friendly hands we gratefully wished 
them a hearty God speed as the train quickened its Eastward 
bound motion. 

THE RETURN SONGS. 

During the trip, the following songs, the first composed by 
Judge Gary, of Oshkosh, and the last by Mr. Hanks, of Mad- 
ison, were repeatedly and successfully sung, along with the 
Excursion song, under the melodious leadership of the 
efficient Dan Tenney. Mr. Burdick also awakened the senti- 
ment of the party, by some of the plaintive minstrel airs that 
are so touching, and all joined in the loud or tender choruses 
of the songs so heartily and tastefully as to fill the Wasatch 
with such music as probably will never float from its windows 
again, arousing and delighting or astonishing the occupants of 
adjacent cars, while the train whiiled down the heights of the 
Sierra Nevadas, and swiftly ran through the barren plains and 
fertile prairies : 



76 FROM WISCONSIN TO 



ALL ON THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

We started out one summer day, 
Unto Chicago made our way, 
To go to California- 
All on the Pacific Railroad. 

CHORUS. 

Hocus pocus, on the run, 
Badgers out to have some fun, 
With boys in the land of the setting sun, 
All on the Pacific Railroad. 

One day at Council Blufls were we. 
And yet another at Laramie, 
And many a curious sight did see- 
All on the Pacific railroad. 
Chobus— Hocus pocus, <fec. 

Then over the mountains and plains we go, 
To the home of the saints in the valley below 
Where Mormons are high and Gentiles low, 
All on the Pacific Railroad. 

Chobub— Hocus pocuB, &c. 

Then away to the Golden State we fly. 
Where mountains lift their heads to the sky, 
And fruit abounds, and the trees are high, 
All on the Pacific Railroad. 
Chobus— Hocus pocus, &c. 

Where Chinese John has found his way. 
And become a " question of the day," 
In politics a part to play, 

All on the Pacific Railroad. 
Chorus— Hocus pocus, &c. 

We see the sights, with Ralston dine. 
Eat of the fruits and taste the wine. 
And visit the famous Almaden mine, 
All on the Pacific Railroad. 

Chorus— Hocus pocus, &c. 

And well we pay for what we see. 

With " something that chinks " for currency. 

And greenbacks down to 73, 

All on the Pacific Railroad. 
Chorus — Hocus, pocus, &c. 

So, after a week, we bid adieu 

To the broad Pacific, and start anew, 

Virginia City next we view, 

All on the Pacific Railroad. 
Chorus— Hocus, pocus, &c. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 77 

We ramble about, away below 
The surface a 1,000 feet or so, 
With a pocketful of rocks we go, 

All on the Pacific Bailroad. 

Chobus— Hocus, pocus, &c. 

Away upon the wonderful trail. 
That binds the continent with its rail, 
Long may it flourish and never fail. 
All on the Pacific Railroad. 

Chorus— Hocus, pocus, &c. 

Far over mountain, desert and plain, 
We hie to our Badger home again. 
Content with those we love to remain, 
Far from the Pacific Railroad. 

Chobus— Hocus, pocus, &c. 



HOME AGAIN. 

Home again I Home again I 

From Ocean's distant shore. 
And, Oh ! it fills our hearts with joy 
To meet our friends once more. 

Here we dropped the parting tear. 

To cross the mountain range, 
And now again we all are here. 
From country new and strange. 

Music soft, memories dear. 

Linger round the spot, 
And now we're once again with those 
With whom we cast our lot. 

We've been across the continent. 
And olden friends we've met— 
Friends though there in sweet content 
We leave with deep regret. 

Home again ! Home again 1 

With hearts refreshed anew. 
We greet our welcome home again. 
To share it now with you. 

In sharing it with those at home, 

We'll not withdraw oar hand 
From those who with us went and come 
The journey overland. 
(Repeat Home again, &c., at close.) 

In my next, the closing incidents and tlie last paragraph of 
this suggestive Pacific Railroad Excursion, will be given. 



78 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

Notes of the Return Trip — The Scenery of the Sierra Nevadas — 
Visit to Virginia City and its Silver Mines — Reno and its 
Springs and Flies— Vice President Colfax and Party — Moss 
Agates — A Rock-covered Plain — Another Wisconsin Man 
Found — A nice Supper at Bitter Creek, where Water had to he 
brought Seventy Miles — A stretch of Sandy Desert — Amoi^g 
Green Fields Again — Tlianlful Resolutions and Speeches — The 
Lessons of the Journey — The Pacific Road and its Prospects. 

Ox THE Egad, August 8 to 14, 1869. 

Quickly the train on our return ran from Sacramento and 
through the grand scenes of the Sierra Nevadas, until after- 
noon, when the "Wasatch" was detached from the train and 
left at Eeno. Here most of the company took stages and 
went twenty-two miles in the mountains to Virginia City, 
where the vast silver mines at that place were inspected. The 
scenery on the road was xqvj fine, and the dark, blue moun- 
tains looking broad and vast, and with every seam and shade 
strongly showing in the light of the setting sun, formed a 
scene that riveted every eye. When on the highest mountain 
road, the carriages going from Virginia City to meet Vice- 
President Colfax at Eeno, were seen, and their appearance as 
they swiftly came in sight and went by, was very picturesque. 
On arriving at the city, Mr. Allen, the courteous agent of the 
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, was very 
courteous in his reception of the party, and b}^ his considerate 
attentions, greatly contributed to their pleasure. They re- 
ceived every civility from the officials connected with the 
mines and were enabled to go 1,000 feet down into their 
workings, where the silver ore glistens and is picked at night 
and day by toiling miners. All the costly and wonderful 
machinery used in separating the silver from the ore and in 
weighing the precious metal was seen, and so delicate were the 
weighing scales that they gave Hon. George B. Smith the 
exact weight of one of the hairs of his head, showing that it 
weighed the two hundredth part of a gi-ain. The city 



CAXIFORNIA AND RETURN. 79 

abounded in fast life, and gambling, that usual concomitant of 
mining, was fully represented. After the visitors bad seen 
the mines, in tbe usual dresses to protect tbem from the wet 
and damp, and bad seen tbe novel sigbts of tbe stirring place, 
tbey left for Reno early tbe next afternoon and arrived tbere 
in time to go on witb tbe train tbat left between 4 and 5 
o'clock. 

Tbose of tbe company remaining at Reno, found tbat tbe 
bouse fly was very plentiful tbere. Tbe flies filled tbe car and 
covered tbe tables at tbe botels and restaurants of tbe town. 
Reno is situated on a plain surrounded by mountains, and tbe 
smoke tbat can be seen rising early in tbe morning is tbat of 
steamboat springs, wbicb are distant ten miles on tbe plain. 
A large mountain stream of cold, pure water runs tbrougb 
and passes by Reno witb a swift current, and I gratefully 
remember it, because on a warm evening after a bot day, I 
batbed in it and got relief from tbe beat, and a good nigbt's 
rest Early in tbe morning after our arrival at Reno, Vice Pres- 
ident Colfax and wife and otber ladies and gentlemen, among 
wbom were Lieut. Gov. Bross and Col Bowles, arrived tbere 
and went on to Virginia City. At Reno I saw a man wbose 
occupation I could not judge of from his dress, going around 
witb a revolver pendant from bis wfiist, but be did not impress 
me as being particularly ferocious. In pleasant contrast to 
tbis sigbt, I saw boys and girls going to a scbool, at wbicb I 
beard about one bundred were daily educated. Wben tbe 
ti'ain arrived tbe " "Wasatcb "' was attached to it, and witb tbe 
company all on board, was soon running from Reno, among tbe 
plains and mountains of Nevada. Tbe next morning we break- 
fasted at Truckee, and bere some of tbe party began buying tbe 
moss agates that boys sell bere cbeap, and which about some of 
tbe stations beyond, can be picked up by tbe quantity. All day 
long tbe train ran steadily on tbrougb a plain lined >vitb 
rocks, some near and some distant, and of all kinds of shapes ; 
some like buman beads ; some like fortresses ; otbers like ani- 
mals. Tbe panorama tbey presented was icteresting, and the 
grotesqueness of tbe rocks, without a tree or even a blade of 



80 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

grass to in the least hide them, was very marked. Gliding 
among them hour after hour, and seeing their spectral shapes 
in the gathering twilight, caused quaint thoughts and conceits 
that entertained the mind until darkness closed the view. 
These rocks gradually disappeared and then a sandy desert 
bounded with brown looking hills was the prevailing scene. 
At the stations we saw groups of Chinese and Pyute Indians 
and from one of the former several of the party bought Chi- 
nese hats at 75 cents and 50 cents in silver per hat. 

An hour or two before reaching Bitter Creek station where 
we took supper, I recognized at a station, a familiar face, and 
at once greeted Mr. Crowley, formerly a conductor on the 
Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien railroad. He is now a Division 
Superintendent on the Central Pacific, and on entering our car 
he received a warm welcome. 

In returning, through the time having been recently changed 
we did not find such good eating houses as when going out ; 
but at Bitter Creek station, in the midst of a desert we got the 
nicest of suppers, and were waited on by tidy and pleasant 
looking women that it was charming to look at and talk 
to in this barren place, as it would also be in the brightest 
spots of earth. House wives surrounded by every conven- 
ience, can judge of the trouble encountered by these ladies in 
keeping a well supplied table, when I write that all their 
drinking water had to be carried seventy miles. We rose 
from this supper feeling more than ever before, that kind 
hearted, active women were an essential, that men especially 
hungry ones, could not do without. 

On the train went for over 500 miles through a sandy desert 
never stopping day or night, only for the refreshment of the 
passengers or the supply of the locomotives. Then the Platte 
river was reached and the prairie land began to get green and 
more fertile until long before reaching Omaha the grass waves in 
undulating growth, and houses, cornfields and even a school 
house are within the view as the eyes look over the vast 
extent of prairie. And Oh ! how refreshing this green is, after 
the long stretch of bare desert. How the cool air of a grassy 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 81 

prairie is welcomed, after the hot air of the sandy plains. 
How the eyes revel in the sight of waving trees. After leav- 
ing Omaha the verdure increases and the vast corn fields, and 
the numberless shocks of wheat that fill the eye to the hori- 
zon's verge while passing through Iowa and Illinois complete 
the effect of one of the most powerful contrasts that I have 
ever seen. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Before reaching Chicago a meeting of the party was held, 
with Hon. Geo. B. Smith as chairman, at which the following 
resolutions, reported by a committee consisting of Messrs. Van 
Slyke, Gary and Wyman, were unanimously adopted : 

"Whereas, The members of the Wisconsin Excursion 
party homeward bound, appreciating the privileges they have 
enjoyed upon their trip to the Pacific coast, the pleasure of 
which has been unmarred by accident or dissension, hereby 

^^ Besolve, That we especially tender our thanks to Hon. 
Philetus Sawyer and Hon. B. F. Hopkins for their courtesy 
and kindness, through which we have been enabled to par- 
ticipate in this delightful excursion which has throughout 
been enlivened and inspirited by their genial good fellowship ; 
also, 

" Resolved, That the recollection of this excursion, with the 
many and happy incidents connected therewith, both sugges- 
tive and amusing to us all, will ever be pleasant, and that the 
bond of union thus formed shall continue to be one of social 
friendship through life." 

Resolutions were also unanimously adopted, thanking D. K. 
Tenney, Esq., for his valuable services as treasurer; the 
executive committee, for their efficient aid in the manage- 
ment of the excursion ; the Pullman Brothers, of Chicago, for 
their business courtesy and also by reason of the comfort 
and accommodation of their cars, styling them benefactors of 
"the traveling public; Frederick Briggs, Esq., formerly of 

6 



82 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

Madison but now of Buffalo, New York, for his considerate 
present to the excursionists ; and Steward M. B. Barker for 
his faithful attention. The meeting also 

" Resolved, That the organization should be continued, and 
requested President Sawyer to call annual meetings at such 
time and place as he might decide on, for the purpose of 
keeping in mind the pleasures of the excursion and perpetu- 
ating its sociality." 

The Secretary was also requested to prepare his excursion 
correspondence, and that of Hon. George Gary, for publi- 
cation in pamphlet form for the use of the members of the 
party. 

Hon, G. B. Smith, Judge Gary and State Treasurer, W. E. 
Smith, in feeling remarks, expressed the pleasure and profit 
that the trip had given them, and Messrs. Sawyer and Hop- 
kins appropriately responded to the thanks, that all of the 
speakers warmly conveyed to them, 

THE LAST RUN. 

We left Council Bluffs on the afternoon of the 13th, in the 
Pullman car " Union," and although two hours behind time 
on Saturday morning, were brought by some fifty miles an 
hour running, to the Northwestern Depot at Chicago, in ample 
time to take the Saturday night's train to Madison, where we 
duly arrived in good condition, and saluted Wisconsin and the 
Capitol City with rousing cheers. 

THE CLOSING WISH. 

This great trip has given every one of the party a broader 
and better idea of the resources of his country, and the 
character and capacity of the energetic men who conduct 
its enterprises. Some years ago men of weak faith, and 
men who had never by any effort of their own realized what 
hard work and j)ersistent skill could accomplish, presumptu- 
ously said that this national railroad to the Pacific could not 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 83 

be constructed, but lo ! it is,* and the solid fact to-day stares 
them in the face, in travelers comfortably crossing the conti- 
nent, from ocean to ocean, in a little over seven days. Some 
men now say that the road cannot be sustained or successfully 
operatec^ But those ^#io have been in contact with the giant 
enterprise that devised and formed the road, feel that with it 
there is no such word as fail ; that if snow sheds are needed, 
even to Omaha, it will supply them from the exhaustless pine 
forests of the Sierra Nevadas, and that it will be adequate to 
meet the risks of the future, as it has the exigencies of the 
past That it will be, is the heartfelt wish of every one of us, 
who, during an eventful month, have so greatly benefitted 
from it 

This pleasant trip to the Pacific, with all its suggestive 
incidents and memories, will be bright in the mind of every 
participant for many years, and that it may be, in the words 
of one of our choruses — " So say we all of us." 



CORRESPONDENCE OF GEORGE GARY, 

FOR THE "OSHKOSH JOURNAL." 



THE EOAMING BADGEES. 

Omaha, Neb., July 20, 1869. 

The Badgers invaded Nebraska this morning, at this point, 
in force ; the force consisting of twenty-nine persons, all told. 

The Oshkosh brigade, on Sunday evening, found the sleep- 
ing car of the train for Chicago too small, or too full, to 
accommodate so large a force, to-wit : three ; and sought for 
sleep under difficulties, which were overcome only by the 
skillful and brilliant maneuver of " doubling up." 

At Chicago the writer went a visiting, while the rest of the 
party breakfasted at the Sherman House. 

The arrangements for the western trip were perfected by 
the delegation which went down from Madison on Saturday, 
under direction of Hon. B. F. Hopkins, and at half-past nine 
o'clock Monday morning, the party left the Sherman House 
in good spirits (and several carriages). At a quarter past ten, 
so much of the " Star of Empire " as was included in this 
party, took its way " Westward, ho," on board of one of Pull- 
man's palace cars, attached to the express train of the C. & N. 
W. railway. 

A pleasant incident at the outset was the meeting with our 
former townsman, M. A. Edwards, Esq., who had been on a 
flying business trip to New York and Boston, and was bound 
for his home in San Francisco, by the same train. He was 
looking, and apparently feeling well, and spent a considerable 
portion of the day in our car. 



86 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

The run from Chicago to the Mississippi river was made in 
five hours — about one hundred and fifty miles — which is good 
time. The time to this place was about 22 hours — 493 miles. 

A few miles east of Council Bluffs, a landslide had carried 
away the track and obstructed the trains on Saturday ; the 
consequence was that when we stopped at Dixon for dinner, 
we found that the eastward bound train, with the accumula- 
tion of passengers for two days, had pretty nearly cleaned out 
the culinary department at that station. All deficiencies were 
made up by a comfortable supper at Cedar Kapids. 

There has been as much rain in Iowa and Illinois as in 
Wisconsin, and the crops, on low lands and the level prairies, 
are suffering accordingly. 

Omaha is a lively, growing city, claiming a population of 
20,000 or more. The trade of the cit}^ is large. 

"VVe have just returned from a ride around the thriving and 
beautiful city of Council Bluffs, of which one gets but a poor 
impression in passing on the Northwestern road, which runs 
through the marshes on the north side of the city, and out of 
sight of the attractive portion of it, which is built among the 
bluffs and ravines, back a mile or two from the river. 

The two cities are rivals, of course. The scenery around 
both is attractive, and both will probably flourish. Omaha 
has the advantage now of being the terminus of the Pacific 
railroad, and has grown away from its rival. What the effect 
will be of the completion of the railroad bridge, remains to be 
seen. The people of Council Bluffs claim that their city will 
then be the great business point, which does not seem to me to 
be improbable. The Northwestern, the Eock Island, and the 
Hannibal and St. Jo. railroads make it now a railroad centre 
of no inconsiderable importance. 

We leave here in the morning for " over the plains," and 
my next will probably be from Salt Lake City or thereabouts. 
The mail is about to close, and therefore I must do so. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 87 

Laramie, W. T., July 22, 1869. 

My last closed with a ride around the city of Council Bluffs, 
which I stated erroneously to be a mile or two from the Mis- 
souri river. It is in flict four miles across a low flat, upon 
which the depot grounds of the Union Pacific railroad will be 
located when the railroad bridge is completed. 

After mailing my letter to you, we took supper with our 
hospitable friends at Council Bluffs, and returned to Omaha. 
A hearty little speech of welcome by Mr- Montgomery, form- 
erly of La Crosse, was responded to in a very happy manner 
by Hon. Geo. B. Smith and James Ross, of Madison. 

At half-past eight Wednesday morning (the 21st) we left 
Omaha, minus Hon. Henry Cordier, who came with us to that 
place but thought he could not spare the time to come further. 
A jolly company of twenty-eight, the proprietors, for the time, 
of a first class palace car, we started out "to do" the Pacific 
railroad ; and right here, let rne say, that I have not ridden 
over a smoother, better railroad, anywhere, than the Union 
Pacific to this point. Neither testimony nor experience cor- 
roborate the* statements of Hon. L N. Morris. The obvious 
defect of cottonwood ties will be remedied, doubtless, by 
replacing them soon with others of more durable material. 
For a time they are probably as good as any, but will not last 
long. They are laid for a considerable distance (I do not know 
how far) up the valley of the Platte. 

We made, through Messrs. Hopkins and Sawyer, the ac- 
quaintance of Mr. Johnson, a member of congress from Cali- 
fornia, who was on the train, and found him a pleasant com- 
panion. We also made acquaintance with a Mr. Bull, a Mor- 
mon from Salt Lake City, connected with the Beseret News^ 
and a preacher of the faith of the Latter Day Saints. He rode 
with us several hours, and answered freely all our questions 
in relation to the social and religious aspects of Mormonism. 
Like Jacob of old, he had two wives. In manner he was 
courteous, but enthusiastic, and we found his company very 
agreeable. 



88- FROM WISCONSIN" TO 

All day long we rode under a glorious sunshine and over a 
level prairie up the broad Platte river valley, the settlements 
gradually growing less as we progressed, with little to diver- 
sify the scene excepting the river, which first showed itself 
about forty miles from Omaha, and at frequent intervals for 
250 miles to the crossing of the North Platte, where we took 
supper. Having the car to ourselves, no one confined to any 
particular seat, we could sit, lounge, stand, sing, whistle, 
smoke, etc., at pleasure, and therefore the ride was not at all 
fatiguing. 

This morning found us on the plains not far from Cheyenne 
which place we reached at 7:20 A. M. Far in the southwest 
an occasional glimpse of some snow-capped peak of the main 
range of the Eocky mountains kept us on the alert, while 
along our route piles of rocks, the remains, probably, of a once 
impassable mountain range, now worn down by time and the 
action of the elements into a rolling barren plain, and looking 
like ruins of old monuments, castles, fortresses and towers, 
scattered over the uneven plain, gave us new ideas of the 
wondrous changes since the far off " beginning," when the 
earth was " without form and void." 

At Sherman, thirty-three miles west of Cheyenne, we passed 
the summit of the Black hills, 8,242 feet above the sea level, 
and the highest point on the Union Pacific road. From that 
point to Laramie, a distance of twenty-three miles, we de- 
scended about 1,100 feet. 

It is about time for the mail to close, and I must reserve 
any attempt at description in detail for my next, which will be 
before leaving here, if "possible. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. ig9 

THE BADGEES AT SALT LAKE. 

Laramie — Several Distinguished Travelers — Admiral Farragut 

Staging through the Canons — Salt Lake City — Sulphur Spring 
Bath — Mormon Theatre — Church and Sunday School — Oov. 
Durkee — Gen. Gihhon — The Tabernacle and Great Organ, etc. 

Salt Lake City, Utah, July 25, 1869. 

My last left our party at Laramie disporting themselves in 
the mountain air, over 7,000 feet above the sea, and more 
than 6,000 feet higher than our lands at home. Mountains 
covered with perpetual snow were visible far to the west and 
southwest. 

We walked about the village, and tried to re-establish the 
ancient Greek games by getting up a scrub foot-race over the 
level plain, and last, but not least, attended a theatre in 
the evening, at which Madame Schellerwas the star performer, 
and of which our old friend Langrishe was the manager. He, 
however, was not with the troupe at Laramie. 

"We formed a pleasant acquaintance at Laramie with Dr. H. 
Latham, an intelligent gentleman who has had many years' 
experience in the country, and from whom we received much 
information in relation to it. He is now in charge of a hos- 
pital established here by the Union Pacific Eailroad Company, 
where their employees disabled in the performance of their 
duties, are treated free of charge. The company have extensive 
shops at Laramie, also. 

The train for the West on Friday was four hours behind 
time, and we did not leave Laramie till afternoon. Attached 
to this train was a special car containing Gen. Dodge, of 
Council Bluffs, chief engineer of the Union Pacific, and a 
party of his friends. 

Among the passengers were Gen. Augur, commander of the 
department, and Gov. Campbell, of Wyoming, who wer^ going 
up to the Sweetwater mines to examine into the condition of 
affairs there, with a view to the establishment of a military 



9 a FROM WISCONSIN TO 

post, if the mines seemed likely to be a success. Ex-Grovernor 
Sanders, of Nebraska, and family, who had stopped over at 
Laramie, also took the same train. 

But the special excitement was the announcement, as our 
car was being switched on, that the gallant old Admiral Far- 
ragut was a passenger on the train. He is going, with his wife, 
to the Pacific coast for his health, which has been poor. 
Towards evening the Admiral passed through our car to that 
of Gen. Dodge, and, as you might expect, he did not get 
through without an introduction and hand-shake all around. 
Some of our party engaged bim in conversation, and he 
remained with us nearly an hour, and we gave him three 
rousing cheers as he left our car. He is a brave, modesty 
genial old man, full of reminiscences of his past experience, 
related in a modest, unassuming way — a man whom you 
would sooner take for a philanthropist than for one of the 
dogs (sea dogs) of war. 

It was about the last place that one would expect to meet, 
accidentally, the Admiral of the American Navy, and the wag 
of the party says be expects to see whales on the Sierra Ne- 
vadas. 

Gen. Dodge, Gen. Augur and Gov. Campbell visited us and 
spent considerable time in our company. The Railroad Com- 
pany and the world are largely indebted to the perseverance, 
intrepidity and engineering skill of Gen. Dodge, for the suc- 
cessful construction of the Union Pacific. His graphic account 
of his experience in making the surveys for the road was 
exceedingly interesting. 

We passed over the region of sage brush and alkaline deso- 
lation called the Bitter Creek country, in the night At the 
divide of the continent, 750 miles from Omaha, we looked out 
in the bright moonlight upon a barren desolate scene of blufis 
and rocks, from which spring the waters that run eastward to 
the Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Pacific Ocean. We 
have been and shall be again upon a higher elevation, but it 
is here only that we stand upon the very backbone of the 
great continent, and feel that the rail beneath our feet is the 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 91 

iron cord which binds together for all time in one great 
national family the denizens of the far East and West. Sup- 
pose the government subsidy be sunk in the great enterprise; 
it will be repaid ten fold in the great development of wealth 
and sources of revenue to the government, and a hundred fold 
in uniting the interests and sentiment of nationality which will 
wipe out the narrow provincialism that attends isolation, or 
want of ready means of transit and communication. 

Already the western slope is feeling the want of, and begin- 
ning to agitate for, a currency uniform with that of the East. 
It is felt that a different standard and measure of values can- 
not and ought not to be maintained. 

Wisconsin men abound on the Pacific road. Our conductor 
in the afternoon was from the St. Paul railway, the one who 
took us through by night on the Prairie du Chien road. We 
had a brakesman who used to run from Fond du Lac to Green 
Bay, and on the next car to ours was a colored boy who was 
last year on the sleeping car, ".City of Oshkosh." 

Morning found us 900 miles from Omaha, and crossing the 
line between Wyoming and Utah. 

From Wahsatch, where we breakfasted, to Uintah, the sta- 
tion from which we reach this place by staging, thirty-five 
miles, the route through Echo and Weber canyons beggars all 
description. High bluffs on either hand rising into the 
heavens ; tunnels through the rocks where the curves in the 
canyons are too short; precipitous rocks with deep gorges rent 
up through their jagged sides as if by some terrible convulsion, 
and the rush of the train without steam down the sharp grades, 
produce in the mind sensations of wonder and perhaps a alight 
fear, mingled with curiosity as to what will be the next scene 
in the rapidly shifting panorama. 

We reached Salt Lake City (a place of about 20,000 people) 
at about half pa?t seven. Here we made raids in force, first 
upon our small stock of clean linen, etc. ; second, on the sup- 
per table at the Townsend House, (a comfortable hotel kept 
by a Mormon,) and thirdly upon Brigham Young's theater, 
where we saw " The Drunkard " and " Pocahontas '' creditably 



92 FKOM WISCONSIN TO 

performed by a company of which all but two persons were 
residents and Mormons. Brigham was not there, but we saw 
quite an array of his wives and daughters, and President 
Wells, the third authority in the Mormon church, with his 
three wives. 

This (Sunday) morning tlie whole party visited the warm 
suphur spring and baths, about two miles from c>ur hotel. 
Out of the base of a mountain isues a warm spring which 
reaches the baths at a temperature of eighty degrees, and near 
it is a cold spring, both strongly impregnated with sulphur. 

After the baths, two of us organized an expedition — which 
we could get nobody else to join — to attend the service of the 
Protestant Episcopal church. This, I believe is the only Gen- 
tile church which has established a permanent station here. 
The services are conducted regularly in Independence Hall, a 
room which will seat about two hundred people, and which 
was well filled. At the gate we met Grov. Durkee, who had 
called upon us in the evening, and his wife, who has been 
here but a few weeks, and is evidently homesick. 

We were early, and in time to be present at the closing 
exercises of the Sunday School, which numbers about sixty 
bright, intelligent pupils. This school and the congregation is 
gathered from among the Gentiles, with perhaps some from 
the military post which is commanded by Gen. Gibbon, who 
led the gallant old Iron Brigade. 

Two sons of Joseph Smith have recently arrived here, who 
lead the small faction of "old light" Mormons opposed to 
polygamy. They preached at the same place in the afternoon, 
to a crowded audience, I am told. 

But another expedition was organized from our party to 
attend the Mormon service at the great Tabernacle at two 
o'clock, and this time there was no difficulty in getting vol- 
unteers, until the whole party was included. We went under 
the escort of Mr. Hooper, delegate to Congress from Utah, 
who is a courteous gentleman, and is showing us every civility. 
He is a Mormon, but has only one wife. 

The choir was singing when we entered, one of Charles 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 93 

Wesley's hymns, to the same old tune in which I used to sing 
the same hymn when a boy. The preacher — Geo. A. Smith, 
the second authority in the church — read for a text the proph- 
ecy of Isaiah, of the time when the lamb and the lion shall 
lie down together, and commenced an extemporaneous dis- 
course, which was a brief history of the rise, persecutions, 
removals, sufferings and final location and success of the 
Mormon church. It was evidently intended more for us than 
for the Mormons present. Yesterday, the 24:th of July, was 
the 22nd anniversary of their entrance into this valley, and 
was celebrated with great enthusiasm. 

But for the great organ and the distribution of the sacramen- 
tal bread and water during the preaching, the manner of con* 
ducting the services would not have been much different jfrom 
that of a Methodist meeting of the olden time, when the fol- 
lowers of the Wesleys cared more for carrying the gospel to 
the poor all over the land than for building fine churches and 
renting the pews. 

The great Tabernacle, 250 feet long by 150 wide, spanned 
by an arched roof, rising from walls 25 feet high to a height 
of 84 feet from the ground, is a wonderful structure. The 
great organ, second only to the great Boston organ, which is 
not yet half completed, is also a wonder. It is built by Mor- 
mons here, out of materials produced here, and for sweetness 
and purity of tone is said to excel the great organ at 
the Hub. It will cost nearly or quite one hundred thousand 
dollars when completed, of which but about one thousand is 
for material purchased outside of the territory. After the con- 
gregation was dismissed we were introduced to the Presidents, 
as they are called. Young, Smith and Wells, the three highest 
dignitaries of the church, and to other leading men among 
the Mormons, and had considerable conversation with them. 
I am bound to say that as a rule they have treated us with 
a degree of courtesy which I hardly expected. 

I found that President Smith, a cousin of Joseph Smith, 
was born in my native town — Potsdam, N, Y, — and upon the 
strength of a common birth-place we became very social and 



94" FROM WISCONSIN TO 

had considerable conversation about Mormonism as well as 
other matters. 

I have not an opinion to express about Mormonism yet. 
We shall see more of them to-morrow and I shall try to get 
light upon the subject, but it is the pursuit of knowledge 
under difficulties. 

We leave here on Tuesday morning early for Sacramento. 



THE BADGEKS IN CALIFOENIA. 

More about the Mormons — The Ride from Salt LaTce City — First 
sight of '■^ John^^ — The Railroad over the Sierra Nevada — 
Arrival at Sacramento — Steamboat Ride to San Francisco — 
Meet the Chicago Commei'cial Party, etc. 

San Francisco, Cal, July 31, 1869. 

My last was written on Sunday evening, after visiting the 
Tabernacle at Salt Lake City. 

On Monday, we were shown around the city by Hon. W. 
H. Hooper, delegate to Congress from Utah, who is a very 
conservative Mormon, with only one wife, and who treated us 
with great courtesy. From the top of the Tabernacle we had 
an extensive view of the Salt Lake Yalley, and unanimously 
voted a land grant of one-half the land reclaimed to the saints 
for the purpose of making canals along both sides of the 
valley from L'tah Lake, thirty miles south, for navigation and 
irrigation. So far as the land is irrigated it is fruitful. We 
also saw the foundation of solid granite for a great temple, 
186 by 99 feet, which is to rival Solomon's in magnificence. 
Mormonism, it seems, requires a temple for the more solemn 
rites of its religion. The dream of the Mormons, however, is 
that the central temple of the kingdom of God upon the 
earth, which shall surpass all the great religious edifices of the 
world, is to be erected in the State of Missouri, where they 



CALIFORNIA ANT) RETURN. 95 

still o-^n large tracts of land, and where they were long ago 
directed, by a revelation from heaven, to erect it 

The policy of Mormonism is to build up wealthy commu- 
nities, but not wealthy individuals. 

The cultivated portions of Salt Lake valley are therefore 
cut up into farms of from five to twenty acres, few having 
more than twenty. I think there is a tendency to aggregate 
property in the church — or in its leaders — but the particular 
processes by which it is done I could not ascertain. 

"We called \ipon Gov, Durkee and were hospitably enter- 
tained by him and his estimable lady. 

On Tuesday morning, after a three o'clock breakfast, which 
we paid for over night and failed to get in the momiDg, 
(Moral — l^ever pay for anything at a Mormon hotel kept by 
the husband of six wives, until you get it,) we took the stage 
coaches to Uintah, where we had to wait for the train, which 
was four hours behind time, until two o'clock. 

At Uintah we met K. A. Darling, formerly of Fond du Lac, 
who has been doing a considerable business in the ice trade on 
the Union Pacific Road. 

At Corinne, a thriving town of 1,000 or more people, thirty- 
two miles fi-om Uintah, (the only Gentile settlement in Utah) 
we were boarded byD. K. Allen, Esq., formerly from Vinland 
in our county, who rode with us to the next station, nineteen 
miles, and gave us considerable information about the country. 
He is in the banking business at Corinne, and is doing welL 
It is hardly necessary to say that we were mutually glad to 
meet on the plains of UtaL 

The road passes, in this nineteen miles, close to the north 
end of Salt Lake, over salt marshes and an alkali desert, which 
looks like the very abomination of desolation, and then rises 
by circuitous and steep grades nine miles to Promontory 
summit, which is the connecting point between the Union and 
Central Pacific roads. 

On the Central Pacific road we met, for the first time, the 
Chinese labor question, face to face. John, with his blue 
frock, wide trowsers, and pig-tail, was everywhere along the 



96 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

line, attending diligently to his business, and apparently not 
heeding the scowk and muttered curses which were visited 
upon him whenever he came in contact with Irish laboring men. 

The road west from Promontory runs for 450 miles over 
hills and desert plains, which, with the exception of some 
portions of the valley of the Humboldt, which may be re. 
claimed by irrigation, seem incapable of ever supporting a 
population of any kind. At Elko, 468 miles from Sacramento, 
the point of departure for the White Pine mines, a town has 
sprung up of considerable dimensions, which has a large 
trade, a daily paper, and all the rush and recklessness of a fast 
town in the mining region. 

Here we found a jail, made of a freight car, standing on a 
switch, with the doors grated with iron, in which three or four 
men were locked up, who were charged with some crime (I 
did not clearly ascertain what) instigated by their hatred of 
the Chinese. 

Sunrise on Thursday morning found us at Truckee, 119 
miles from Sacramento, and within fourteen miles of the 
summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the midst of 
such wild, grand and picturesque scenery as locomotives 
never whistled through before. The grade ascends nearly 
twelve hundred feet in this fourteen miles, and descends about 
seven thousand feet in the next hundred miles into the Sacra- 
mento valley, which is only about sixty feet above the sea. 
The road winds along the precipitous mountain sides in a 
manner astonishing to travelers, who look down hundreds, 
and in some instances thousands, of feet into the deep canyons, 
upon the verge of which they are rushing along over what I 
believe to be the greatest triumph of engineering in the world. 
Upon any reasonable presumption, the man who first projected 
a railroad over the Sierra Nevadas ought, if alive, to be in a 
lunatic asylum. But the demonstrated fact is, that he was 
entirely sane. The road is there, and engineers drive their 
trains over the mountain tops with as little fear as "Wells, 
Fargo & Co.'s drivers used to drive their stage coaches over 
the mountain roads — and with less danger. 



« 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 97 

We arrived at Sacramento to dinner, and in the afternoon 
were indebted to the courtesy of Alfred Briggs, Esq., U. S. 
Collector of Internal Revenue, for a drive around the city. 
In the evening we were waited upon by N. L. Drew, Esq., a 
brother of C. C Drew, of Oshkosh, who is a heavy dealer in 
lumber at Sacramento,and a prince of whole-souled good fellows. 
Yesterday (Friday) morning, Mr. Drew came with carriages 
and took us down to his lumber yard and extensive docks, 
which he is constructing on the Sacramento river, and after- 
ward to his house, where we tried his hospitality and found it 
to be " A, 1." 

At 2 P. M. we embarked on the fine steamer Yosemite, and 
steamed down the river for San Francisco, where we arrived 
at about half-past ten in the evening. Our further movements 
will be determined to-night or to-morrow. 

Among those whom we have met to-day are Gov. Haight, 
of this State, Gen. Ord, the Department Commander, and 
Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, who has just returned with his 
son from a ten days trip to the Yosemite valley. 

I forgot to mention that at Colfax, fifty -four miles from 
Sacramento, we met the train with which the Chicago Com- 
mercial Excursion Party were returning home, for ten min- 
utes. Noise enough was made during the ten minutes, 
however, for ten hours under ordinary circumstances. 

Sixty or seventy miles from Sacramento we saw hydraulic 
gold mining going on, but could not stop to examine the 
process. 



98 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

)Sa7i Francisco — The Cliff House — Scene on the Beach — A call 
from former citizens of OshJcosh — A ride on the Bay — Visit to 
the Bank of Calif oo'nia — Grain Fields and Orchards — How the 
Chinese live — Sights and Scenes in the Gity^ etc. 

Sacramento, Aug. 7, 1869. 

My last left us in San Francisco on Saturday night, one week 
ago. 

I think I omitted to mention a ride on Saturday morning to 
the Cliff" House, which is a great resort for San Francisco peo- 
ple and strangers. 

Six miles from the city, just outside of the Golden Gate» 
(the entrance to the bay) on the point of a bluff" just where it 
slopes down to a smooth, sand}- beach beyond, on the open 
coast of the broad Pacific ocean, stands the Cliff House. A 
few rods out in the sea rise three rocks, jagged and irregular in 
form, to a height of twenty or thirty feet above the water, and 
over them breaks the surf, which rolls and roars eternally 
against the bank beneath the house. On these rocks a colony 
of seals have made their home, and in great numbers lay in the 
sunshine, occasionally lifting their uncouth forms in awkward 
play, and emitting the unearthly noise — half growl, half bark 
— which, though I had not heard it for years before, sounded 
to me, as of old, like the wail of lost spirits which had caught 
cold in the outer darkness. Then came a school of porpoises, 
the most diminutive of the whale species, rolling, tumbling 
and sporting in the waves, and renynding me of some rare sport, 
harpooning porpoises, in a time which had almost faded into a 
dream. Then came a flock of gulls sailing through the sun- 
shine. A few genuine whales were all that was wanting to 
complete the scene, and the landlord promised those if we 
would wait till about sunset, as he said two or three had made 
their appearance at about that time for several days. 

My home had once been for several months a ship's forecas- 
tle, upon the broad Pacific. But for more than twenty years I 
had not smelled the salt sea breeze, and as I went down and 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 99 

dipped my hands into the surf as it rolled up on the beach, a 
flood of old memories bridged over the time, and, for a moment 
the old indescribable longing to tread a ship's deck again, and 
sail away to the uttermost parts of the earth, took possession of 
me. In my ears rang the old song, 

" A wet sheet and a flowing sea," 

and, for Jhe instant, I almost regretted that I was a sober, re- 
spectable citizen of a far inland city, bound by the ties and 
duties of ordinary life to return. 

But this is egotism, and, I suspect, nonsense to your readers 
who have never sowed wild oats on salt water. 

Ex-Grov. Stanford, President of the Central Pacific Railroad, 
was of the party to the Cliff House. He was many years ago 
a resident of Port Washington (now Ozaukee) in Wisconsin. 
He thinks the construction of the road over the Sierra Nevada, 
mountains would have been postponed many years but for the 
cheap Chinese labor. 

Messrs. McCracken, Edmonds and Lane, formerly of Osh- 
kosh, called upon us. All of them are doing reasonably well, 
I think, and seem satisfied with California. 

On Sunday afternoon, by invitation of Gen. Ord, we had a 
pleasant ride around the bay on a government tug, and visited 
some of the fortifications which protect the entrance. On the 
top of Alcatraz Island, which is apparently a rock rising out 
of the bay one or two hundred feet, and bristling with ten and 
fifteen inch guns, pointing out in all directions from its rugged 
sides, we found a beautiful, blooming flower garden. 

After the ride I dined with W. B. Holcomb, Esq., formerly 
of Omro, whom, with his estimable lady I had counted for- 
merly among my friends in Wisconsin. He is in the lumber 
business, and doing well, 

On Monday morning, by invitation of Mr. Ealston, cashier 
of the Bank of California, our party visited that institution, 
and saw huge piles of gold and silver bullion. 

I escaped that aggravating sight, however, for I went out in 
the morning to see my friend Fred. Nixon, who left the estab- 
lishment of Beckwith, Davis & Co., in Oshkosh, a few weeks 
• L.orO, 



100 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

ago, to emigrate to California, with his wife and naother, and 
returned just in time to get a glimpse of the carriages which 
were conveying the rest of the party to the bank. 

In the afternoon our party, in charge of Col. 0. H. LaGrange, 
who has recently been appointed Superintendent of the Mint, 
and Professor Carr, visited Oakland, a beautiful little city of 
ten thousand people or so, across the bay, the prospective ter- 
minus of the California Pacific road from Sacramento. 'A ferry 
boat crosses the bay, four or five miles, to a long pier which juts 
out a mile or more from the shore, where a train of cars takes 
the passengers three or four miles further, into Oakland. As 
we left the cars I met an old schoolmate and friend of my boy- 
hood who resides in Oakland, and while our party rode about 
in carriages and dined with Col. LaGrange, as a party of dis- 
tinguished Wisconsinners ought to do, I went and lunched 
with my friend and his wife, whom I had known only as a 
young miss just entering her teens, and then with his horse and 
buggy drove around the city and surrounding .country until 
time to take the last boat back to San Francisco. In fact, I 
found so many old friends in San Francisco and Oakland that 
1 found myself separated from the party a considerable portion, 
of the time spent there. 

The country about Oakland is charming. North of the city 
four or five miles a spur of the coast range of mountains comes 
down to the bay, and the level plain and foot hills between, are 
cultivated farms. 

"Wheat was standing in shocks in the fields waiting for the 
threshing machine, which I was told (and believe) would yield 
from forty to sixty bushels per acre. Gardens rich with almost 
tropical verdure, and fruits in great variety, were numerous — 
and the land was held at five and six hundred dollars per acre 
in gold. I concluded that it was not a good location for a poor 
man. 

In the evening, to keep up a custom which we had observed 
everywhere on the route, we went to the California theatre, and 
saw and heard John Brougham, and the inevitable young lady 
in tights and short skirts, who, in musical accents and with a 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 101 

jaunty air, informs the frequenters of theaters everywhere, now, 
that she is 

" Captain Jinks of the Horse-marines." 

By the way, it strikes me that a constant display of veal on 
the stage is becoming about as nauseous as it would be on the 
dinner-table. 

Tuesday morning was spent in looking over the city. Time, 
paper and patience would fail in the attempt to describe all the 
interesting things seen. The fruit-market is a sight to make the 
mouth water. Fresh fruits of all kinds are piled around in 
quantities which raise a wonder as to where the purchasers are to 
come from for all of it. Everybody uses fruits of all kinds free- 
ly, and my experience is that they may be eaten with impunity, 
to the extent of a man's capacity. 

The mercantile library, to which I was introduced through the 
kindness of Professor Carr, is worthy of a letter by itself, but 
my time was too short to give it the attention it deserves. 

The Chinese quarter is a novelty to inexperienced Christians. 
Packed into little dens in basements, upon bye-ways and alleys 
they live like rats in their nests, upon next to notliing a day, and 
hoard up their earnings like misers, as I am informed. They 
bring but few respectable women to this country, and too many 
of a degraded class. 

But this letter is getting so long that another must give the 
rest of our experiences in California. 



102 FKOM WISCONSIN TO 



BADGERS ON THE RETUEN. 

Quichsilver Mines — California Fruit — View from the Coast 
Range — Dine at "J. Little Place in the Country'''' — Good 
Horses — Hospitality — Geysers — Chinese Theatre — Furs in Au- 
gust — Staging to Virginia City — An Eclipse, Visible without 
Smoked Glass — Home Again. 

On the Wing Down the Platte Yalley, 
Friday, August 13, 1869. 

I feel as tliougli I could write a book, and find it difiicult 
to compress, within the reasonable hmits of a few letters, all 
that I want to describe of our experiences on this trip. 

On Tuesday afternoon, August 3d, under the guidance of 
Mr. White, an agent of the Bank of California, our part^"- 
started for a trip to San Jose and the celebrated New Almaden 
quicksilver mines. The San Jose railroad, which runs south- 
easterly up the Santa Clara valley, and which is expected 
eventually (by some) to form the connecting link which is to 
make San Francisco the practical terminus of the Southern 
Pacific road, took us to the beautiful little town of Santa 
Clara, three miles from San Jose. At Santa Clara is an old 
Jesuit mission and college, which is well endowed, and has 
philosophical and chemical apparatus equal to the best col- 
leges in the country. Under Mr. White's direction we left 
the cars here and entered carriages which were waiting for us, 
and, riding a short distance, turned into an open gate and 
found ourselves driven through a magnificent arbor of grapes 
trained over trellises several rods in length. Cross-sections of 
vine-covered arbor, opening at regular intervals into other 
sections parallel with the one through which we were driving, 
revealed to us the fact that we were passing through a consid- 
erable vineyard trained upon arbors. As we emerged from 
this, the carriages halted beside a large bed of splendid straw- 
berries, red and tempting, upon which we made a vigorous 
assault in full force, but from which we retired in a few min- 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 103 

utes defeated, without having made any perceptible impres- 
sion upon it. By judicious clipping and irrigation, strawber- 
ries are produced at all seasons in this wonderful country. 
We rode on through groves of all kinds of fruit trees, hung 
with fruit rich and tempting as that which •' brought death 
into the world and all our woe." Mr. Pierce, the proprietor 
of this garden, we did not see, but it is a habit of these Cali- 
fornians to let us see their hospitality whether they are them- 
selves visible or not — or such is my inference from our ex- 
perience upon this trip. 

We drove to San Jose through the Alameda, a beautiful 
road lined on either side with sycamore trees, planted a century 
or so ago, it is said, by the Jesuit fathers of the Santa Clara 
mission. We were accompanied by my old friend, Dr. L. H. 
Gary, formerly of Sheboygan county, then of the army, and 
more recently of Fond du Lac, who came to California almost 
a dying man two years ago, was reported dead, read obituary 
notices of himself in the papers, and yet lives with improved 
and improving health at San Jose. In the evening a band of 
music appeared and serenaded us at our hotel, which called 
out brief and appropriate speeches from several members of 
our party, which were responded to by two or three San Jose 
gentlemen in a few pleasant words of welcome and congratu- 
lation. 

Early in the mornmg, carriages were at the door to take us 
to the mines, fourteen miles distant in the mountains west of 
the valley. We experienced on this ride one of the draw- 
backs to California in the summer — the dustiness of the roads. 
The last two or three miles of the drive was up a steep moun- 
tain road, dug out of the precipitous sides of the hills, and 
curving back and forth from terrace to terrace, until those in 
front cculd look down on the rear carriages hundreds of feet 
below them, at an angle of thirty degrees, then turning sharp 
round the bend of a deep canyon and away up another steep 
mountain side, until suddenly a magnificent panorama of the 
broad, beautiful valley, with its brown pastures, yellow stubble 
fields and green gardens burst upon the view ; then up again 



104 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

along and around deep canyons yawning below the road scarce 
wider than a wagon track, until an altitude of nearly two 
thousand feet above the valley was gained, and the mines were 
reached. 

We rambled a little way into a " drift " in the mountain, 
and demonstrated the superior nature of woman and her right 
to vote, by declining to descend a shaft through which Anna 
Dickinson had ventured a few days before. With a few speci- 
mens of cinnabar in our pockets, we descended, as all drives 
down the mountain roads are made — on a sharp trot, and in a 
few minutes. A brief inspection of the smelting works, ac- 
companied by a clear description of the whole, from the gen- 
tlemanly superintendent, closed our visit, and we drove back 
in time for a lunch, a climb up to the cupola of the splendid 
stone court house of Santa Clara county, from which the view 
of the valley was beautiful, and then took the 2 o'clock train 
for the city. 

At Menlo Park, thirty miles from San Francisco, we met 
Mr. Ralston, whom I have mentioned before as the cashier of 
the Bank of California, with whom we were invited to dine, 
and a large party of gentlemen from the city waiting for us 
with carriages to take us through some of the " little places 
in the country," which some of the wealthy men of San Fran- 
cisco had fixed up for their country residences. A " little 
place in the country " is a few hundred acres, more or less, 
with a fine house, magnificent stables, extensive parks and 
fruit gardens, fountains, fish-ponds, lawns and everything that 
wealth can command to gratify the taste and minister to the 
comfort of the proprietor and his family. We went through 
three of these places, belonging to Mr. Barron, Mr. Atherton 
and Mr. Selby. A full description would be too long for your 
columns. Suffice it to say (in your private ear) that I am of 
the opinion that our host had Aladdin's lamp in his pocket all 
the time, and kept rubbing it, and that all I had heard or read 
of California as a fruit-growing country, was fully sustained. 
Apples, pears, peaches, figs, pranges, apricots, plums, necta- 
rines, grapes, strawberries, blackberries, almonds, melons. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 105 

everything indeed, but a few extreme tropical productions, 
that I have ever seen in the fruit line, seem to reach perfection 
in that state. At the risk of being considered a man of doubt- 
ful veracity, I will state one fact : on a pear tree, not exceed- 
ing four inches in diameter, and on a twig not more than half 
an inch through, I counted twelve large full-grown pears 
hanging in a cluster like a bunch of grapes. 

Professor Carr, to whom we were indebted .for much atten- 
tion and useful information, explained to me, I think, the true 
reason of the wonderful productiveness of the California soil. 
The soil lies from ten to fifteen feet deep above the subsoil. 
As the surface dries after the rainy season is over, the roots 
of vegetation penetrate deep for moisture, which works up 
from below, bringing with it elements of fertility which in a 
wet climate would slumber deep in the earth. 

It was seven miles from Mr. Selby's to Mr. Ealston's place, 
and we were invted to take our choice to ride in the carriages 
or wait for the train, which would arrive in a few minutes. 
Two four-horse carriages, seated omnibus fashion, were loaded 
with a dozen or more in each, and driven the seven miles in 
thirty-five minutes. The carriage horses in Califoi'nia are 
good roadsters. Mr. Ealston has a span which, I am credibly 
informed, he frequently drives from his place to the city — 
twenty-two miles — in ninety minutes. The roads of course 
are, smooth and good. 

We arrived at Mr. Ealston's about sunset, and _^after such 
toilets as men two thousand miles from home with no baggage 
but carpet bags and those at our hotel in the city, could make, 
and a brief interval of chat and inspection of the splendid 
mansion in which we found ourselves guests, we sat down to a 
dinner of thirteen courses in a spacious dining hall in which 
the fifty guests present looked like a cosy family party. 

The palatial proportions of the house may be imagined from 
the statement that it contained a dancing hall eighty feet in 
length, and reception rooms, parlors, guest-chambers, etc. to 
match. My humble experience had never led me into such 
" a little place in the country " before. The members of our 



106 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

party will not be likely to forget the hospitality and courtesy 
of the officers of the Bank of California. I believe I did not 
mention that on the previous day, Mr. Mills, the President of 
the Bank, had taken the party to the refinery, where the last 
impurities are removed from ths precious metals after they 
come down from the mines. My usual perverse luck had 
prolonged a morning call upon a lady friend whom I had last 
seen a pretty, lively girl of nineteen, and now found a mat- 
ronly woman twice that age, with a family of children around 
her, until I was just too late to go with them. 

On Thursday, the 5th, Messrs. Sawyer, Hay, Wra. E Smith, 
and Moseley, started for the celebrated Geysers of California. 
The dust of our ride to the quicksilver mines, which was 
about like that of our i:)rairie roads in a very dry time, had 
satisfied me that carriage riding in that country was hard on 
weak eyes, and fearing that I should not be able to see at all 
when I got there, I declined the trip to see the Geysers. 

Those who remained behind visited Woodward's gardens on 
Mission street, which is the route of Squibob's survey of the 
central route to the Mission Dolores, Here we found a very 
respectable collection — zoological, ornithologilcal and entomo- 
logical — of living and stuffed specimens, and a pleasant place 
to spend a few hours. 

Friday was our last day in San J'rancisco, and was spent in 
making little purchases for those at home, and last looks at 
friends and places of interest. I spent considerable part of 
the day among old friends at Oakland, seeing among others 
Mrs. Silas Adsit, who formerly resided in Oshkosh. Mr, 
Adsit had been to New York, and was expected home by the 
next week steamer. 

In the evening, in company with Fung Tang, a Chinese 
merchant of wealth and respectability and great intelligence, 
who speaks and writes English well, we visited the Chinese 
theater. If the performance amused the Celestials, who are 
accustomed to that sort of thing, I can only say they are 
easily amused. Its absurdity was amusing to us for a short 
time. The constant music (that is what it is called,) of gongs, 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 107 

sticks and Chinese fiddles, whicli sound but four notes, was 
rather monotonous. I believe the play was a tragedy, but a 
terrific battle on the stage in which the actors crossed swords 
very cautiously, turned cart-wheels and hand-springs, and did 
everything absurd except fighting, did not seem very tragic 
— nor very comic either after a little. The singing resembled 
nothing else so much as a cat concert on a moonlight 
night. On the return trip some of the party were very suc- 
cessful in imitating it, and singing Chinese became rather a 
favorite amusement. 

One of the first things that strikes a stranger as peculiar in 
San Francisco is the sight of ladies out with furs on in mid- 
summer. In driving, carriage-robes are used as constantly as 
we use them in December. The sea breeze rushes in through 
the Grolden Gate in the afternoon so cool that overcoats are 
not uncomfortable. The breeze looses its force and chilliness 
as it progresses, and when it is decidedly cool in San Francisco 
a balmy summer atmosphere is felt at Oakland, a pleasant 
warmth pervades the Santa Clara valley, while at Sacramento 
beyond the influence of the sea breeze, the thermometer stands 
at 100^ in the shade. But the heat is not so potential as in 
moister climates. I am told that men work in the harvest 
fields when the mercury is up to 110°, and cases of sunstroke 
are unknown. I have perspired more in two hours in the 
Platte valley than during my whole sojourn in California. The 
perspiration evaporates in the dry atmosphere of the western 
coast so rapidly that it is scarcely felt. 

On Saturday morning, at seven o'clock we took a steamer 
for Valejo, (pronounced Yallayo,) and the Sacramento and Val- 
lejo railroad, from thence to Sacramento, where we arrived for 
dinner. At Yallejo is the only elevator yet erected in the 
State, all the wheat being shipped in sacks. We saw acres of 
sacked wheat piled up at some of the stations in the Sacra- 
mento Valley waiting for transportation. 

At Sacramento we were again indebted to the courtesy of 
Alfred Briggs Esq., for a drive through an extensive vineyard 
and a visit to a California wine cellar, and also for a quantity 



108 PROM WISCONSIN TO 

of commissary supplies wliicli he sent down to our car. He 
and our friend N. L. Drew, Esq., spent the evening with us 
and came down to the depot at six in the morning to see us 
ofi: 

At that hour, in the famous Pullman Palace Car "Wasatch," 
we started on our return trip over the mountains. On the 
train we again met Senator Trumbull, 

At 4 o'clock P. M., we had passed the grand scenery of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, and embarked at Eenoon the stage- 
coaches for Virginia City. We had for a fellow-passenger, Mr. 
Sutro, the originator of the famous Sutro tunnel project, which 
is nothing less than to drift from the base of the mountains 
under the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, and see what can 
be found four thousand feet under ground. I believe he wants 
a loan of $5,000,000 from the government for this purpose, to 
secure which he will give a mortgage on the hole. 

Going up the mountains we met a large number of carriages 
going down to meet Vice President Colfax, who with his old 
companions, Bowles and Bross, was expected on the next 
train from the east. They arrived at Virginia City next 
morning, but I happened to be a thousand feet under ground 
at the time and did not see them. We saw Senator Nye, and 
Mr. Hay and I had the greater pleasure cf meeting our former 
townsman, Eobert Ames, who is running an engine at the 
Ophir mines, for the pleasant compensation of six dollars in 
gold, per day. His brother, who was formerly engineer on a 
Fox river steamboat, is chief engineer at the same mine, but 
we did not see him. 

We were much indebted to the kindness of E. K. Allen, 
Esq., the courteous agent of the Northwestern Mutual Life 
Insurance Company, at Virginia City, who went with us to the 
mines and showed us every attention, at a time, when but for 
him, we were in considerable danger of being overshadowed by 
the arrival of the Vice-Presidential party. 

By their inopportune arrival we suffered an eclipse, which 
was visible without smoked glass. 

At 4 1-2 P. M. we left Eeno for home. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 109 

If this was not already too long I would relate some inci- 
dents of the ride ; how we visited the next car by invitation? 
and sang our patent original songs — how several sweet voiced, 
sweet faced young ladies sang songs for us — and many other 
pleasant things. But Omaha and the end of the Pacific rail- 
road are near, and I have occupied too much time and space. 



Sunday, Aug. 15. 

Home Bgain without accident ; without missing a connection ; 
without serious sickness in any of the party. It has been four 
weeks of great enjoyment to me, and if such brief sketches as 
I have been able to give have interested your readers, it is to 
me a further cause of satisfaction. 



CORRESPONDENCE OF GEORGE GARY, 

FOR THE "OSHKOSH NORTHWESTERN." 



WISCONSIN EXCUESION WEST. 

Omaha, Neb., July 21, 1869. 

The Wisconsin excursion party leave here this morning, 
and I improve the few minutes left before starting to write 
a brief notice of such things as seem to me of interest in con- 
nection with the trip. A telegram yesterday informed you of 
our arrival here. 

West of Chicago on the level prairies, the corn did not seem 
to me to be more forward than in Winnebago county. Be- 
tween Dixon and the Mississippi river, and through most of 
Iowa it was better. But along the whole route, crops of all 
kinds have suffered severely from the extremely wet weather. 
I think there has been more rain in this section than in Wis- 
consin during the last three weeks. 

A more beautiful surfaced country than the State of Iowa — 
or so much of it as I have seen — I have never seen before. 
But for the scarcity of timber and the terrible tornadoes which 
occasionally sweep through some devoted village, or neighbor- 
hood making havoc with buildings, fences, trees and some- 
times human life, it strikes me as one of the most inviting 
regions lying in the shadow of the star spangled banner. 

On Monday I saw the Mississippi, and yesterday the Mis- 
souri river for the first time. It may be a sort of romantic 
nonsense, but to me there was an exhilaration in the first 
sight of the broad sweeping current of the streams which in 



112 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

school boy days, I had been taught to believe would, in future 
generations, become the arteries through which would flow the 
commerce of a mighty nation. 

"It is wonderful, when we think of it, that those anticipated 
generations, and this generation shoyld find the main artery of 
that commerce, cutting them at right angles, and altogether 
independent of the courses of great rivers, 

Omaha shows on the surface that it was built in a hurry. 
Although there are many fine brick business blocks and 
dwellings, it reminds me in many respects of the Oshkosh of 
twelve years ago. The same kind of temporary looking small 
balloon buildings, both for business and residences abound ; 
the same sort of temporary sidewalks, and unimproved streets 
meet our view often. But it has no resemblance to Oshkosli 
in location, for it is built on higb bold ridges, scarcely less 
than bluffs, and is destined when the old rookeries are burned 
or torn away and their places supplied with better buildings, 
to be a beautiful citj. The immense amount of money dis- 
bursed here during the construction of the Pacific Eailroad, 
stimulated a wonderful growth. It is still growing but with 
less rapidity. There is a heavy trade with the country further 
west, and I am told that the internal revenue returns, are in 
proportion to population, equal to those from any city in the 
West. 

A large portion of our party by invitation, spent the after- 
noon yesterday at Council Bluffs, where we were hospitably 
entertained. Council Bluffs has a much more finished perma- 
nent appearance than its more bulky rival across the river. It 
is a pleasant city, situated in the valleys and ravines, among 
and at the foot of the bluffs, on the Iowa side of the river, and 
is growing steadily. 

The turbid waters of the Missouri which are now crossed by 
heavy ferry boats running every fifteen minutes usually loaded 
both ways, will at not a very distant day be spanned by an 
iron bridge. Then the occupation of a very large number of 
teams and teamsters, will be gone, as well as that of the heavy 
ferry boats. 



I 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 113 

Among the Wisconsin men here, are Col. Champion S. Chase, 
formerly of Kacine; Judge Wakely of Madison, Judge Ester- 
brook, the first Attorney General of Wisconsin. Here also I 
found the Eedfield Brothers, formerly of the Waupaca Spirit, 
running a Job printing office. 

Time is up. Something of the country further west, you 
may look for soon. 



Laramie, W. T., July 23, 1869. 

The Union Pacific railroad runs a few miles south from 
Omaha, through a hilly section, with a soil in which there 
seems to be a considerable portion of sand, and rises by an 
easy grade to a level prairie, which stretches away to the base 
of the great continental range of mountains which divides the 
Mississippi basin from the Pacific slope. Twelve miles out, 
the road curves to the northwest, and runs with some angles, 
but in the general direction West to Kearney, opposite old 
Fort Phil. Kearney, 191 miles from Omaha, through a country 
susceptible of cultivation now, which we should call a vast 
prairie in Wisconsin. Much of the way it stretches from the 
hills south of the Platte river, which are visible away to the 
north, farther than the eye can reach. An occasional small 
belt of timber, along the streams tributary to the Platte, and 
an occasional field of corn (which looks to be about two weeks 
in advance of Wisconsin) or wheat, or both, is all that breaks 
the monotony. Frequent views of the Platte, which is near 
the road on the south, and the timber belts along and beyond 
it, diversify the scene more in that direction. 

Fremont, 46 miles, and Columbus, 91 miles, from Omaha, 
are county seats and considerable villages, the former with 
about 2,000, the latter with about 1,000 people, whose new 
houses cluster together on the open prairie, each forming the 
nucleus, I doubt not, of a considerable town in the future. 



114: FEOM WISCONSIX TO 

Excepting these, the stations along the road are merely sta- 
tions, around which begin to cluster scattering dwellings at 
several points. 

The growing crops indicate a fair soil. The rank Buffalo 
grass furnishes splendid grazing, and all the cattle are fat. 
The settlements and improvements grow less and less, and be- 
fore reaching Kearney cease altogether. 

Before reaching Kearney, Buffalo were seen several times, 
whether in the reality or in the imagination of those who saw 
them, I cannot tell' We were not beyond the reach of graz- 
ing cattle, and I was skeptical on the point, though like all 
prudent doubters, I kept my doubts to myself Prairie dogs 
began to be seen, however, to a certainty. 

West of Kearney the soil is probably not susceptible of 
successful cultivation without irrigation. For a large tract of 
country, this could probably be successfully accomplished from 
the water of the Platte, but it will not be attempted very soon 
I presume. 

At North Platte, where the road crosses the river of that 
name by a bridge half a mile in length, and western bound 
travelers get as good a supper as at any first class hotel, night 
had overtaken our train. From this point, 291 miles from 
Omaha, for nearly 200 miles further, we saw nothing except 
in dreams ; but our train kept thundering on — climbing up, 
up, ever upward, towards the Black Hills, over a road which 
is, to this point, as smooth and in as good condition, apparently, 
as any railroad in the west. 

Morning found us, on the Plains, forty or fifty miles from 
Cheyenne, going westward less rapidly than at night. The veg- 
etation which had been gradually diminishing for 300 miles, 
consisted of astunted growth of grass and sage, interspersed with 
a beautiful blue flower, which some one called heliotrope, and 
others less beautiful. A branch railroad is to be built from 
Cheyenne to Denver, to accommodate the Colorado travel and 
traffic which leave the Union Pacific at this point. 

Cheyenne, 516 miles from Omaha, and about 1000 from 
Chicago is now a town of considerable size, (population is said 



I 



CALIFORNIA AND RETUEN. 115 

to be about 3,800) lying at the foot of the Black Hills proper. 
Erom here to Sherman we climb up — with two powerful loco- 
motives — two thousand three hundred feet in thirty-three 
miles, an average of nearly seventy feet to the mile, and reach- 
ing eighty-eight and a fraction at the maximum — to Sherman, 
the highest point on the road, eight thousand two hundred and 
forty-two feet above the sea level. Here we unfurled the State 
flag of Wisconsin, and indulged in an extra dose of enthu- 
siasm. 

From Sherman to Laramie twenty-three miles, the descent 
is about 1,100 feet, and is run without the use of steam, and 
here we find ourselves laid by for twenty-four hours in the 
great basin or park, known as the Laramie bottom, at a vil- 
lage or city of about 1,000 people, with a daily paper edited 
by Dr. Hanford, formerly of Fond du Lac. The ascent and 
descent of the Black Hills is made'through many cuts of vary- 
ing depth, blasted in rock or shoveled through the disinte- 
grated gravel-like quartz knolls which were once rocks, and 
are now the " everlasting hills," at least until some geological 
epoch shall make them something else. There are deep- 
ravines also crossed upon bridges or by filling. 

Upon reaching (Jheyenne, the snowy range becomes visible 
far to the South-west, and we strain our eyes to catch glimpses 
of the snowy peaks of the Eocky Mountains. This, and the 
curious piles of rocks along the route which mark where was 
once the mountain peaks of the Black Hill range, afforded 
abundant objects of interest. 

Laramie is situated upon a great plain sixty or seventy 
miles wide — probably more — through which flows the Big 
Laramie and Little Laramie rivers. To the East as I lookout 
now five or six miles away, is the base of the Black Hills 
which rise 1,400 feet or more. Fifty miles or so to the West — 
though in the rare clear atmosphere it does not seem more 
than fifteen — rises Mt. Agassi z, 6,000 feet or more above the 
plain ; and away to the South-west, Long's Peak, still higher ; 
their summits crowned with everlasting snow, and standing as 
sentinels over the lesser hills, which stretch along on either 



116 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

hand above the snow line, and associating, the idea of purity 
with that of coldness. 

It is a magnificent panorama on which the eye lingers with 
pleasure, and to which it returns again and again, admiringly, 
as men admire the pure and lofty heights of sublime virtue — 
without any desire to climb up there. 

Our train is behind time, and I have spun this out accord- 
ingly. The telegraph informs us it will be here soon. 



Salt Lake City, July 26, 1869. 

My last left us at Laramie. To the west of that point forty 
or fifty miles in the mountains are the " Last Chance " mines, 
upon the success of which depends considerably the future 
value of corner lots in Laramie. Catile can be, and are past- 
ured ui3on the Laramie plains, but no agriculture can amount 
to anything there without irrigation. An enthusiastic gentle- 
man whom I met there, thought irrigation would do for them 
what it has done for Salt Lake Valley. The soil is similar but 
lacks some of the elements of fertility which this valley has — 
and it is nearly three thousand feet higher in the air. As we 
leave the plains and begin to rise from the base of the Eattle- 
snake range of mountains, the sinuosities of the road are equal- 
ed only by those of the upper Fox river. Besides the curves 
around bluffs, too high to cut through, curves and reverse 
curves doubling back upon each other like a broad letter S, are 
made for the purpose of reducing the steep ascent to a practi- 
cable grade which is sometimes ninety feet to the mile. Sixty 
miles or thereabouts from Laramie is a bed of valuable lignite 
coal which is opened and worked, tind it is ascertained that coal 
is abundant in the region. The country is a barren desolate 
succession of hills, rocks, ravines, curves and snow covered 
mountains along which we run within a few miles at some 
points. The Bitter Creek region, the most desolate of all, we 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 117 

passed over in the night. The scenery through Echo, and We- 
ber canons, through which the road descends into Salt Lake 
Valley, is grand and sublime, but it is the sublimity of deso- 
lation. 

Salt Lake City is a fine city with wide streets, through the 
gutters of which runs the water to irrigate the gardens, which 
are attached to every house, and which are pretty well shaded 
by trees, where twenty years ago there was not a tree. 

Apricots and apples are ripe and delicious. Peaches and 
grapes are abundant but not ripe. The City and the Taberna- 
cle have been described often, and I will not attempt a descrip- 
tion, but I suppose your readers would like to know my im- 
pression of 

MORMONISM AND THE MORMONS. 

I have had considerable opportunity during the two days of 
our stay here to converse with leading Mormons, and withGren- 
tiles, and have endeavored to examine the matter, free from any 
bias of prejudice. But the evident suspicion of the Mormons, 
and intense prejudice of most of the outsiders ; the wide disa- 
greement in their statements, and the uncertainty which, with 
so short a period for observation, a stranger must feel as to the 
motives on either side, render a cautious judgment at least pru- 
dent. 

The material results of Mormonism are quite palpable all 
around us. 

One hundred and twenty thousand people (more probably) 
in Utah are forcing from twenty-five to sixty bushels of wheat 
to the acre, from a soil which twenty-two years ago was a bar- 
ren valley, producing only sage bush and bunch grass ; have 
corn to-day far ahead of any in our route through Illinois, 
Iowa, or Nebraska ; have built a fine city of twenty thousand 
people, and thriving, handsome villages ; established manufac- 
tories, including cotton factories to work up the staple which 
they raise themselves, and are living apparently in a comforta- 
bly well to do manner, almost, or quite, without drinking sa- 
loons, gaming houses or houses of prostitution ; with little or 






118 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

no use for police courts, or jails, unless to keep straggling Gen" 
tiles in order, and needing no locks upon their doors to prevent 
burglars. Why is it ? 

Twenty two years ago last Saturday, the advance guard of 
the Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. They had been 
driven from Missouri, driven from Illinois, their leaders mur- 
dered, their property destroyed, and they had marched a thou- 
sand miles through an unknown wilderness to found a State in 
the desert and place between themselves and their persecutors 
a distance which would ensure exemption from the attacks of 
their enemies. 

History furnishes no nearer parallel than our boasted Pilgrim 
Fathers, and the sufferings of the Mormons must have exceed- 
ed theirs. Irrigating drains must be made before anything 
could be raised. 

A wall of mud and stone, was built around a large tract of 
ground, for protection from the Indians. For two successive 
years, grasshoppers, more numerous than the locusts of Egypt, 
swept all before them, and devoured every green thing. But 
they persevered. By industry, close economy, and a judicious 
use of the streams of water from the mountains, they have con- 
verted the sterile soil into beautiful fields and gardens, and 
there ajopears to be a harmony and unity among themselves, 
exhibited elsewhere only by the Quakers. 

Ideas move the world, and I have concluded that all this is 
the result of an idea. They are doubtless fanatical, but did 
ever any but fanatics, accomplish such results under circum- 
stances so adverse. 

The fundamental idea of Mormonism, seems to be that the 
gifts of inspiration are granted to man still ; that revelations from 
God, are still made to chosen prophets or apostles ; that the 
apostolic power of directing all the affairs of the chosen people, 
and of healing diseases by laying on of hands, or anointing 
with consecrated oil, or in some miraculous manner still re- 
mains ; that Joseph Smith, was, and his successors are to con- 
tinue to be guided directly by revelations from God. It is not 
wonderful, therefore, that this people regard the directions of 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 119 

Brigbam Young as commands, to be obeyed as a religious 
duty. 

I think the disposition of the Mormons is peaceable toward 
all mankind. Yet I doubt whetherlhey can live in peace, ex- 
cepting by l)eing left alone, (or so nearly so as to be practically 
a unanimous people), or by being intermixed with a strong nu- 
merical majority of outsiders. For it does not require a close 
inspection of Mormonism, I think, to discover that they draw 
no line of demarcation between religious and civil institutions 
and duties. A people who have at their head a man directed 
by the spirit of God, through revelations from time to time, 
need no separate civil institutions. They have a Theocracy in 
practice. Their affairs are governed by the direction of the 
Almighty himself This is a connection of church and state, 
which cannot be severed while the church constitutes a strong 
majority because in this view the church is the state. The 
forms of civil government, may be organized — are organized 
in Utah. But the administration is upon the idea, that the 
whole life of man in all its relations, should be the continual 
performance of religious duties ; that every duty in life is a 
religious duty. 

I do not know how it is in the selection of minor officers, 
but it is plain there can be no important political contests 
among such a people. If they were mixed with other people, 
the political divisions would inevitably be by a religious line, 
at least until they were overwhelmed by a numerical majority 
and probably then unless they were in a minority so small, as 
to constitute a mere balance of power between contending fac- 
tions. 

This is the great difficulty with the Mormon question. They 
have gathered here almost from the four quarters of the globe, 
to exercise their religious faith, and to establish a state in the 
wilderness founded upon it. It seems hard to them, that they 
should not be permitted to do it unmolested, and without stat- 
utes being aimed at them, and their institutions. I think they 
do not much fear the statute, for they know as well as Burke 
did, that a whole people cannot be indicted. But they regard 



120 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

it as evidence of a disposition to molest them. I refer of 
course to the statute against 

4>0LYGAMY. 

I have assured Mormons here that although the people of 
the states might regard them as fanatics, there was no preju- 
dice which would lead to animosity, excepting against this one 
feature of their institutions. I think it is hard for them to be- 
lieve this, because they do not know the spirit of toleration, 
which has grown up since their experience at Nauvoo, whicli 
regards religious differences as inconsequential, and only laughs 
at what would have met violence and persecution then. 

But this institution is a part of their religious system, based 
like the most of it upon direct revelation, and therefore here 
they are, with a social domestic system, utterly antagonistic to 
the prejudices and education of the whole world, to cherish 
which, they regard as a sacred duty. 

But this letter must end, for I have but two hours to sleep, 
before starting for a thirty-five mile stage coach ride, to Uintah 
station. So you can say at the end of this, as they do of the 
stories in the Ledger^ to be continued. 



Uintah, July 27, 1869. 

Have just arrived here from Salt Lake City by stage, and 
the telegraph informs us that the train is about four hours 
behind time, so I improve the occasion to finish what I was 
writing last night. 

I think that I closed with the statement that Polygamy is 
taught and regarded as a religious duty, among the Mormons. 
Every sincere Mormon, I think, regards the interests of his 
church as the first in importance ; thebuildipgup of his church 
by every means in his power, as bis most imperative duty. 
I think also, that they look for the growth and increase of the 
church as much, from the rearing children in it, as from con- 



CALIFOENIA AND KETURN. 121 

versions. There is something of the feeling of the ancient 
Israelites. The proudest man is the one with the largest 
family ; the proudest woman, she who rears the most children. 
Where this view prevails, and there is any considerable num- 
ber of unmarried women. Polygamy certainly tends to the 
rapid increase of population, and increase of numbers is what 
the Mormons want, to build up what they regard as the 
Kingdom of God on earth. This is the theory, I think, upon 
which the institution of Polygamy is defended in argument ; 
but a higher reason is, that a direct revelation has com- 
manded it. 

Now these people are not all hypocrites, probably in no 
greater proportion than in other religious bodies. Tiaey have 
shown their faith by their works too strongly and surely to 
admit a probability of hypocrisy ^s a rule. 

This thing, therefore, cannot be sneered or jeered away. 
This people, as a rule, believe in it religiously. And those 
who look for a solution of thp difficulty through the repug- 
nance of the Mormon women, may be deceived. Doubtless to 
the natural feelings of the first wife, the idea of a division of 
the husband's attentions and affections is repugnant; but 
women have made greater sacrifices than even that, to an idea 
and a sense of duty. I do not think but that some of the 
Mormons, both men and women, are discontented. It would 
be wonderful if it were not so, among so many. But I do not 
think that there is any extensive discontent or dissatisfaction. 
Mormons say there is none, and that all who desire may leave. 
Gentiles say on the contrary, that the discontent is very 
extensive, and that some sort of secret espionage and 
coercion keeps them there. 

It has its peculiar organization which is about as perfect 
as that of a regiment of soldiers. It has its President and 
Councilors, its twelve Apostles, its Bishops or teachers, in 
each ward and precinct, its Captains of Seventies, and Captains 
of Tens. I do not know all the real titles. Society is divided 
and subdivided, so that every member is under the eye of 
some one in authority, at least such is the general idea that I 



122 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

have got of the organization. If this be so, of course discon- 
tent must be pretty deep and extensive, before it will appear 
much to a casual observer. A common expression among 
Gentiles is that the system is a despotism. It is a moral 
despotism of course, as is every system by which men pro- 
fessing to have Divine authority, control and regulate the 
conduct of others. But I am far from satisfied that there is 
any physical danger to any one who attempts to leave the 
church or the valley. The terrible power of the system 
consists in the isolation with which it surrounds the man who 
does not obey its authority, and is cut off from membership. 
Disputes among Mormons seldom get into the law courts. 
The Church has a regular judicial system of its own, with 
appeals from one to another tribunal, until the case reaches 
the court of last resort — Brigham Young. No execution is 
issued to enforce the judgments of these tribunals, which act 
upon equitable principles, and not according to the forms of 
law, but the moral execution of excision from the church is 
more potent than the writ of any court. 

Their purpose, I believe, is to establish a Church which, as 
I have before said, shall be the /State, the Kingdom of God. 

To this end I think they discourage the settlement of 
Gentiles among them. They confine their trade and business 
as far as possible, to their own people ; but this is also true, 
that Gentiles do not patronize Mormons when there are Gen- 
tiles, with whom they can deal. Prejudices are strong both 
ways. The Mormons insist that the Gentiles belie them 
horribly, and that they should be let alone. The Gentiles, on 
the other hand, insist that the Mormons are guilty of all the 
catalogue of crimes, and that their religion sanctions them 
when committed against Gentiles. They tell of Mormons who 
have attempted to leave, and have been prevented by force ; 
of others who have recently fled secretly, because they did 
not dare to leave openly. They insist, and I think believe, 
that the sons of Joseph Smith, who preached against poly- 
gamy at Salt Lake City, last Sunday, will disappear within a 
short time — in other words be murdered. 



I 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 123 

I would not undertake to express a decided opinion without 
more time for investigation than I have had. 

But I am satisfied that Mormonism, as a system, cannot 
continue to exist just in its present form, under our Govern- 
ment, unless in a State or States controlled by Mormons, for 
the simple reason that as a religion it cannot be severed from 
politics ; because its aim is not to establish a religious sect or 
church merely, but a State. For this purpose they removed 
beyond the neighborhood of other people. For this purpose 
the converts in Europe are removed as fast as possible to the 
Salt Lake Valley. 

"We were treated courteously by the leading Mormons? 
Presidents Smith and Wells, the councilors of Brigham 
Young ; by Hon. W. H. Hooper, delegate from Utah to 
Congress, and by others. It seemed to me that our move- 
ments and conversation were watched with some care. 

Brigham Young, in conversation with our party, assumed 
what seemed to me to be a defiant tone. He said in substance 
to Hon. Greorge B. Smith (in our presence) that the attempt 
to send an army to subdue them by Buchanan was nearly the 
cause of the destruction of the Government ; that another 
attempt would be the entering wedge to its destruction. This 
was explained, however, and I think truly to mean, not a 
threat of resistance to and destruction of the Government of 
the United States by the Mormons, but a prophecy of a 
visitation of the judgments of Heaven upon the Government, 
if it should interfere, and an assertion that the lebellion in the 
South was such a judgment. 



San Francisco, Aug. 5, 1869. 

I have been roaming around too much to find opportunity 
for writing since our arrival in this city, and now propose to 
give briefly my information in relation to what I have seen, 
instead of a narrative of events. 



124 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

The Central Pacific Railroad over the Sierra Nevada Moun- 
tains is almost a miracle of engineering skill. The roadway is 
tunneled through rocks and dug out along the precipitous 
mountain sides for miles where even a wagon road would be a 
wonder. There are many miles which cost $200,000 per mile 
and about thirty miles are covered with snow sheds at a cost of 
$24,000 per mile, to protect it from the drifting snows which 
last winter, covered it in some places fifty feet. These snow 
sheds shut out from the traveler the view of much of the mag- 
nificent mountain scenery, which is grand and sublime beyond 
description. If the feeling of awe and wonder had not almost 
gone out among the men of this generation, it would be in- 
spired by the rugged mountains which lift their heads among 
the clouds, and the apparently almost bottomless chasms, 
along the verge of which the train crawls like some fiery- 
breathed, smoke belching saurian reptile of a long past geo- 
logic age. But we regard this mountain range as simply an 
obstacle in the track of the star of empire which was to be, 
and was, overcome of course. Nature plainly marked the 
path of the Union Pacific road through the Rocky Mountains. 
Art had to make one for the Central Pacific over the Sierra 
Nevadas. 

I have of course had opportunity to see but little of Cali- 
fornia in a single week, but by using my tongue and ears, as 
well as eyes, I think I have learned something of its people 
and of its resources, aside from the deposits of metalic wealth 
which are hidden in its soil and rocks, and which are now 
costing more than is being realized from them, I am told by 
those who ought to know. 

The people of California came from everywhere (China in- 
cluded), and local ideas, habits and notions of almost every 
part of the civilized world are as it were, shaken up together 
to make a compound of ideas, habits and -notions for this 
people. The men who came here across the Plains, around 
Cape Horn, or even by the Isthmu.-?, were men of will and 
energy. A man may come now without a large stock of 
either, but he could not until the railroad was constructed. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 125 

Therefore some of them are rich, many in comfortable pecu- 
niary circumstances, and few in extreme poverty. Probably 
a larger proportion of the people own the homesteads in which 
they live in San Francisco than in any other large city in the 
United States. 

The people are social and hospitable, and seem to devote as 
much energy to their social enjoyments and amusements as to 
business. 

Everybody who is able, keeps a horse or horses, the roads 
every where, even up the steepest mountains, being good, 
excepting in the wet season (winter) when on what is called 
the adobe soil they are nearly impassible, I am told. In the 
dry season (which is from June to October) they aje as dusty as 
our prairie roads in a dry summer, but otherwise excellent 

My idea of California has been heretofore that«its gold was 
the principal source of wealth. It is beginning to be under- 
stood now that its soil, which I believe to be unsurpassed in 
fertility, is a mine of wealth far exceeding its gold deposits. I 
have supposed, and I think a general impression has been, 
that agriculture could flourish here only when irrigation was 
practicable. Irrigation is practiced extensively in gardens and 
is necessary to perpetual verdure, and a constant succession of 
fruits and vegetables, and a windmill for pumping up water is 
a common feature in every garden where a supply of water 
cannot be otherwise obtained. One effect of this is that I have 
picked delicious strawberries from a bed which was in blossom 
for another crop, and have seen corn ten inches out of the 
ground and growing finely close beside other corn which was 
ripe for harvesting. By the judicious use of water, fresh fruits 
and vegetables are kept in the markets all the time. But the 
ordinary cereals and annual crops of all kinds are raised and 
yield bountifully without irrigation when the seed is put into 
the ground at the right season. 

The wheat harvest is over but I rode through wheat fields 
in the vicinity of Oakland the other day in which the shocks 
were still standing in the fields. The quantity seemed to me 
to be great I vouch for nothing in this connection but was 



I 



126 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

told by intelligent farmers, with whom I talked, and by friends 
whose word I have no reason to doubt, that the yield was 
from forty to sixty bushels per acre, and special instances as 
high as eighty were named. 

In the Sacramento valley I was told that the average was 
from thirty to forty bushels per acre. Tiae quality of the 
wheat is not excelled in the world. The exportation of wheat 
is becoming considerable. I was told on Sunday last that 
nineteen English ships were loading with wheat for LivSr- 
poo. 

Uj3on one subject I am positive, that in no part of the 
world, since Adam was driven from Eden, has man luxuriated 
in such a variety and abundance of fruit, as in California. 
We traveled on Wednesday through acres upon acres ofj 
apples, pearj, peaches, plums, figs, almonds, apricots, grapes, 
strawberries, blackberries and melons, in the Santa Clara val- 
ley, and the markets are filled with these, and even oranges, 
lemons and some other tropical fruits, which are produced in 
this State. The quality of the fruit produced here is good, 
and the quantity is marvelous. 

Of course, land in this vicinity is valuable ; from one to 
three or four hundred dollars in gold, per acre, outside of any 
prospective growth of any city. But there are vast tracts of 
equally good land in other parts of the State, which are 
cheaper. 

There is more available land in California than has been 
usually supposed. The soil of the hills is as good as that of 
the valleys. It is all made of disintegrated rocks of a compar- 
atively recent formation. The rock when it crops out is easily 
crumbled, and in many excavations it is not easy to distinguish 
where the line is between the soil and rock. 

The finest grapes are raised upon what are called the Foot- 
hills. Sixty or [seventy miles from Sacramento, at a height 
of over three thoasand feet above the valley of the Sacramen- 
to, I saw peach trees loaded with fruit. They were in an irri- 
gated garden ; but I think annual crops will grow there with- 
out irrigation. Grape -cuttings are planted there and watered 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 127 

the first season, and grow without watering afterward, produc- 
ing fruit the second year. Many — perhaps most — of the hill 
sides are too steep for cultivation with the plough, and are 
therefore — until population becomes dense, as in the old world 
— waste land. While on this subject of the soil, I will tell 
what I was told by an intelligent, candid appearing farmer, to 
whom I was introduced at Oakland, that he threshed five hun- 
dred and thirty-two bushels of oats from four acres. 

There are no catching harvests. From June to October there 
is no rain, and the grain is threshed and sacked in the field, at 
the time which is most convenient. Volunteer crops, as they 
are called, are sometimes harvested. They are crops which 
grow from the seed shelled out at the previous harvest. A 
considerable crop is sometimes obtained in this way, with no 
labor but the harvesting, I am informed ; and I have heard of 
three successive crops from one ploughing and seeding. 

Money is tight and business dull here now. One and a half 
per cent, per month is a common rate of interest, and I was 
told that some Savings Banks were paying ten per cent. In 
addition to the causes which operate in the rest of the country, 
there seems, to me, to be some special causes at work, to pro- 
duce a tightness here. I guess that the precious metals are be- 
ing produced at a loss in the aggregate, and that the produc- 
tion is diminishing. If this be so, it is one cause. Industry in 
all mechanical departments is demoralized by an eight-hour 
law, which politicians have granted to the clamor of eight-hour 
leagues. Establishments which have large capital invested in 
machinery, have been forced to suspend work, under the oper- 
ation of the eight-hour rule. Some are getting hands and run- 
ning ten hours, but it is difficult, because of the thorough or- 
ganization of the Trades' Unions. But little building is going 
on, partly because men cannot be induced to believe that they 
can pay ten hours' wages for eight hours' work. 

The inevitable Chinaman is gradually working into all 
kinds of employment. They work ten hours diligently, for 
small wages ; and in all employments which do not require 
great physical strength, are the best of laborers. They are 



128 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

ingenious, quick to learn, and trusty. They suffer many 
wrongs, are not permitted to testify in the courts, and many 
who would gladly employ them, dare not do it yet. One 
gentleman told me he could carry on his business — which 
employs thirty men — at one-half the present cost for labor, and 
have the work just as well, or even better done ; but if he did 
would expect to be burned out within a week. His business 
is more profitable than many others. The time will come in 
his business, as it has come in many branches of business, 
when profits can be realized only by the most economical 
management. The Chinaman has got into the politics of this 
State, and will, perhaps, get into the politics of the Nation. 
But the inexorable law of political economy, is with him, and 
he will continue to make his way. 

The Salt Lake policy of exclusion will never prevail in this 
country, when the question of cheapening production is in- 
volved. 

I do not think the Chinese will soon want to become citizens. 
They certainly have no such inclination now. But, as I have 
suggested to some friends here, if he would abandon his heath- 
enism and become Christianized to the extent that he could 
chew tobacco, drink whiskey, swear and swindle, like other 
Christians, why not admit him to citizenship ? He is already 
civilized. Ninety-eight per cent, of the Chinese here — and 
most of them are of a low caste — I am told, can read and write 
their own language. 

Our party have visited the points of interest in this city, 
rode around the bay on a Government tug by invitation of 
Gen. Ord, rode out into the surrounding country somewhat, 
visited San Jose and the new Almaden quicksilver mines, 
been feasted and shown around with a hospitality and courtesy 
which we shall not forget ; dined with Mr. Ealston, Cashier of 
the Bank of California, in a country palace, which rivals the 
magnificence of Oriental splendor, and is an astonishment to 
Wisconsinners, and all other sinners who visit it ; visited parks 
and gardens, and houses and stables, upon which fortunes have 
been lavished for beauty and taste, and are to meet at Sacra- 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 129 

mento to-morrow, to start for home, wiser, if not better, men. 
Messrs. Sawyer and Hay, with some others of the party, 
are visiting the Geysers of California. We hope to be at 
home on Saturday, stopping one day — as we now intend — at 
Virginia City, in Nevado, to visit the silver mines. 

We have met here, McCracken, M. A. Edmonds and 0. L. 
Lane, formerly of Oshkosh, and W. B. Holcomb, formerly of 
Omro. At San Jose, we found Mr. Colbourn from Menasha, 
and at Oakland, Mr. Puffer, recently arrived from the same 
place. 



Omaha, Aug. 13, 1869. 

Our excursion on the Pacific railroad ends with our arrival 
here, at four o'clock this afternoon. One night and a half day 
at Virginia City on our return trip, ended our sight-seeing 
beyond what could be seen from our car windows as we passed 
along. 

From Eeno, 154 miles from Sacramento, a stage ride of 
twenty-two miles, thirteen over the level Truckee meadows, 
five miles up the mountains, to an elevation 2,700 feet above 
the plain, and four miles down a descent of about five hundred 
feet brought us into a city unlike any that I ever saw before 
built upon a steep mountain side. 

From a card of the International Hotel, now before me, I 
learn that ten of the eighteen mines known as the Virginia 
and Gold Hill mines, paid dividends last year to the aggregate 
amount of over three and a quarter millions. Virginia City 
is the place where a man's wealth used to be estimated by the 
number of feet in the Comstock Lode of which he was the owner. 
I can give no better idea of the city than by informing your 
readers, that I entered the office of the Hotel from one street, 
ascended three flights of stairs and went out of the other end 
of the house into another street. 

Quartz mining I suppose is pretty much alike in all the mines. 



130 FROM WISCONSIN TO 

It gives one a novel sensation to step on to a platform sus- 
pended over a hole in the ground and descend a thousand feet 
into the earth, and then with a lighted candle in hand to roam 
about through long "drifts" in which one cannot stand upright. 
A frame work of heavy timbers is erected through each drift 
to prevent caving in. Perhaps as you go along you meet a 
car loaded with mineral or waste, running on wooden rails to 
the shaft by which you descend, and you squeeze yourself 
into as small a compass as possible by the side of some post of 
the frame work to allow it to pass. Then in the far end you 
come upon three or four brawny sweating men, naked to the 
waist, picking out of the bowels of the mountains with their 
heavy picks, the mineral out of which the precious metals are 
to be separated. Cross drifts lead you hither and thither, and 
anon a ladder conducts you to another story of this curious 
subterranean temple of Mammon. In some mines three or 
four sections of drifts one above the other, tunnel the ground 
in all directions. 

An hour in one of the mines is sufficient to satisfy the curi- 
osity of one who has but two or three hours to spare, with a 
ride of over two thousand miles impending. A long letter 
might be filled with a description of the details of the process 
of mining, crushing, amalgamating, separating &c., by which 
the pure silver is at last obtained. But who has not read Eoss 
Browne, and who that has read Eoss Browne will care to read 
such descriptions as I could write. 

Nevada is not likely to take high rank as an agricultural 
State, but there are lands in some of the valleys which by irri- 
gation can be made productive, judging from what little I saw 
of it, and what I could learn by exercising the yankee preoga- 
tive of asking questions, I should think that there is consider- 
able land which is a^f? good at least, as that of the Salt Lake 
Yallc}^, and which will some day furnish in the aggregate a 
considerable supply (possibly a surplus) of agricultural pro- 
ducts. The demand and high prices in the mines are said to 
render farming very profitable to the few engaged in it now. 



CALIFORNIA AND RETURN. 131 



Home, Aug. 15. 

So far I had written when the want of further time cut off 
all further writing until I reached that most pleasant of all 
places on the route — home, from which I date this continua- 
tion. 

There is a considerable portion of what used to be called 
the "Great American Desert," which is, and, until some impor- 
tant geological or climatic changes occur, must continue to be 
a barren waste. 

On the line of the Pacific Railroad the tract of country 
from the Laramie plains to the Salt Lake Yalley, a distance of 
about four hundred miles over the divide of the Continent, 
from which the waters seek the gulf of Mexico in one direc- 
tion, and the gulf of California in the other, and including the 
Bitter Creek plains, and Eed Desert, is perhaps the most for- 
lorn and destitute region ever traveled by a railroad. An 
alkaline desert for a loug distance, destitute of any water 
which can be used to quench the thirst of man or beast, and 
of any vegetation excepting sage brush, and often even of 
that. But the sense of desolation and worthlessness which 
the general features of this region is calculated to inspire, is 
somewhat relieved by the fact that immense deposits of coal 
have been found, and are being worked at various points. 
Indeed, it is difficult to see where the supply of fuel for the 
Union Pacific road would have been obtained, but for these 
opportune coal beds. 

Through the desert country west of Salt Lake, alkali plains 
and barren hills whch seem to serve no useful purpose but to 
prevent a great gap in the crust of the earth, give the travel- 
ler a feeling of homesickness. Through the rugged passes 
over the mountain ranges, the grandeur and sublimity of the 
scenery compensates for the apparent want of adaptability to 
supply the natural wants of man. 

From two hundred miles west of Omaha up the Platte val- 
ley, is a productive country lacking in timber, but verdant 
and rich, a vast prairie in fact, rising with a gradual ascent of 



132 FROM WISCONSIN- TO CALIFOENIA AND RETURN. 

a few feet to the mile, which is settling up and is susceptible 
of immediate cultivation. For nearly two hundred miles 
farther, mostly by irrigation the country may be made product- 
ive. Between the Blaffk Hills beyond Cheyenne, and the 
Sierra Nevadas, in the Laramie Plains, the Humboldt valley, 
and other valleys, is considerable land which is susceptible of 
improvement by irrigation. In some of them large herds of 
cattle are kept and thrive on the natural pasturage which they 
afford. 

But it will be a long time before any large population will 
be found to do in these valleys, from Ordinary motives, what 
the Mormons have done in the Salt Lake valley, under the 
impulse of a fanatical idea, and the way business, along the 
Union Pacific Railroad, will be mainly such as arises from the 
mining adventures in the mountains, and therefore I have not 
been able to convince myself that the road will pay anything 
to the stockholders from its business. The business from the 
Nevada silver mines and lumbering interests in the Sierra 
Nevadas, will do more to support the shorter line of the Cen- 
tral Pacific. 

But there is the Pacific Railroad, an accomplished feat, and 
one of the triumphs of the nineteenth century, as smooth and 
as solid a track in the main, as there is in America, and it will 
be operated whether it pays or not. 

Some temporary work upon it will doubtless be replaced by 
that of a more permanent character, but taken together as it 
is, it is a wonder of engineering skill and exhibits much to 
praise, and little to censure. 



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